Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU
by TMan5636
Summary: An Alternate Universe to the original Digimon Tamers, this time Rika is the main characters. Read and find out. Contains major Rikato (Rika X Takato). This is also a remake of the old version which has been removed from the site.
1. The Beginning

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

All characters, plotlines, locations and any other extras are completely AU to the original Digimon Tamers.

AU means Alternate Universe. Basically this fan-fic is using a completely different storyline from the original Digimon Tamers; in this one, Rika is the main character and most characters in this series get their Digimon differently, it will also feature OCs and some of the characters' origins (and maybe personalities) will be slightly different to match this fan-fic.

If you don't like the idea of the new storyline and origins then don't read it.

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Beginning**

Digimon… a series of games, cards and an anime, it was world popular… but none of us had any idea it was real until one day.

Tokyo city, the place where it begins; it was a particularly windy day which was no surprise during August; it was the end of the school hours; We find the headstrong tomboyish girl named Rika Nonaka waiting impatiently outside the school for a certain someone. It was about four minutes later when the school doors opened revealing the goggle wearing boy named Takato Matsuki walking out with a nervous look, he knew Rika wouldn't be pleased for taking so long, it was quickly proven by Rika's intimidating stare she shot at Takato. "Uhh... heh, heh… sorry it took so long." chuckled the nervous boy.

"Whatever, lets just hurry and get home, I'm freezing in this stupid wind!" said Rika with her uncaring tone as usual. The two began walking down the streets facing the strong wind; Rika looks at Takato and remembers the time they first met. It was three years ago during a Digimon card tournament, Rika had beaten Takato in the second round, after the tournament was finished and Rika won, Takato asked Rika to teach him how to play Digimon cards better; Rika knew she wasn't going to enjoy it but she accepted anyway for reasons unknown; and during those three years they eventually became friends.

Rika soon dove out of her thoughts as she saw a rain drop splash onto her nose, Rika and Takato look up and noticed that it was about to rain; soon the two kids began to run home. As the rain picked up quicker than before, they they reached Takato's neighbourhood where he runs off round the corner to reach his home quickly waving Rika goodbye, Rika quickly does the same as she bolts off to her neighbourhood before the rain got even harder.

Rika finally made it home, she quickly shakes the rain off her hair goes into her room to change out of her damp school uniform. Not long later she was in her casual clothing which consisted of a white t-shirt with blue sleeves and a broken heart image on the front, blue trousers with two brown bands over the left leg and white and red shoes. She looked at her desk and noticed that her box of spare Digimon cards were all over the floor, she remembered that her slide-away door which links to the back garden was open all day, so she assumed the wind blew them off the desk; she had closed the door before getting changed.

Rika sighed as she kneeled down and began to pick up her spare cards and placed them back in the box; she noticed one Digimon card that wasn't hers; it was a Guilmon card. Most likely Takato's card he left behind during his last visit; Rika soon picked up a card scanner from her desk and swiped the Guilmon card through the swipe slot, it came up with a few complicated numbers and letters which soon brought up the stats of Guilmon, they weren't too different from Agumon's. Rika just smirked; she knew that Guilmon was Takato's favourite Digimon so she decided to give it back to Takato tomorrow after school; Rika places the Guilmon card on her desk next to the box and she picked up the rest of the cards.

She noticed one card was different; it was a blue card with a yellow 'D' on it; other than that, completely blank. She knew Takato didn't have one of these and she never found one in any pack she bought before. _"What's this? … maybe the card scanner will know_." she thought.

Rika picks up the card scanner again and swipes the blue card through it. Suddenly there was an electrical burst that came from the scanner's slot; Rika dropped the scanner and the card halfway through swiping it due to the electric shock. Rika shuffled a few feet back, she just stared at the malfunctioning scanner as it shown numbers and letters scattering everywhere on the screen. "W-What's going on!?"

Suddenly the scanner stopped, the screen was blank and the blue card was severely burnt. Rika picks up the scanner and notices that the screen cracked, she tries to get the card out of the slot but it was stuck. Rika sighs with annoyance as she just drops the broken scanner on the floor and picks up the last few cards and placed them back into the box. "Well whatever that blue card was, it's ruined now. Guess I better save up for another card scanner as well."

"Rika! Dinner!" shouted Rika's mother, so she stands up and walks towards the dining room for dinner. Before she left her room however, she looked back at the broken scanner for a few seconds, still feeling surprised what happened. Then Rika left her room, unaware of that five more sparks shot from the scanner and the screen started glowing for a few seconds.

* * *

The next day was rather sunny and calm, a much better day than before. Rika was once again waiting for Takato to come out of the school; he came out earlier than last time. As the two walked home, Rika took out the Guilmon card from her pocket and handed it to Takato. "You left this at my house last time you visited."

"Oh thanks!" said Takato feeling pleased "I was wondering where it was."

The two continued their walk home; there was quite a silence between them. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, Rika was normally a silent type and Takato knows it very well. Rika began to think about the blue card, she felt as if she needed to ask Takato, though she suspected he wouldn't know. "Um, did you by any chance lose a blank blue card as well?"

"Umm… no, why?" asked Takato with a raised eyebrow.

"I found one with my cards earlier" said Rika "I thought you might have lost one."

"Is it with you now?" asked Takato.

"No, I tried to scan it to see what it was but the card scanner broke halfway through." Rika had a slightly annoyed look to her "Which kinda sucks since those Card Scanners are expensive." Takato looked shocked at Rika, this made her somewhat suspicious. "What's with the face, do you really know what the blue card is?"

"Uhh… no, not that. I was just a little concerned if you got hurt from the electric shock." said Takato feeling nervous.

"O-Oh… no I-" Rika stopped herself and looked back at Takato quite surprised. "Wait! How did you know the card scanner gave out an electric shock?"

Takato became startled from Rika's question; he looked as if that question got him off guard. He even began to stutter as if he was trying to come up with an answer. Rika leaned her head closer feeling suspicious "Well… it is an electronic device so I assumed there was electricity when it broke." Takato then laughed nervously; Rika knew he was lying but she just ignored it, she knew she wasn't going to get the answer straight away. Soon Rika and Takato made it to Takato's neighbourhood where Takato walks off waving bye to Rika; Rika does the same and she walks off to her neighbourhood.

* * *

Later at night, Rika was sleeping peacefully. But soon she began to dream.

Rika was in a large plain area with so much fog it was hard to see where she was altogether. Rika looked ahead and saw three figures; only one of them was human shaped, the second figure seemed dinosaur shaped but slightly smaller than the human figure, the last was taller than the human figure and was bulky and spiky. "What's… going on?" she muttered

Rika walked closer to get a better view, but after about twenty steps, she bumped into something, it felt like glass. She looked around and noticed that there was glass all around the three figures as if it was trying to keep Rika away from them, but at least she could see the three figures better. To her shock, the human shaped figure was Takato; next to him was the dinosaur shaped figure, Guilmon. "Takato!? And that's a Guilmon!"

She looked at the third figure; it was green with a large mouth and white hair. It was an Ogremon; Takato smirks at the Ogremon as he pulls out a small device. "Ready boy?" asked Takato.

"Sure am!" said Guilmon sounding cheery

Suddenly Guilmon and Ogremon began to fight hand to hand. Soon Ogremon punched Guilmon away and jumped up readying to attack Guilmon with its bone club; suddenly the device in Takato's hand began to glow and so did Guilmon.

"Is it… Digivolving?" Rika muttered again.

Suddenly Guilmon appeared much bigger with long white hair and a large spike on the side of each claw. It had Digivolved into Growlmon and it quickly blasts Ogremon with a fire ball, it lands onto the ground injured; Takato walked up to Ogremon who quickly flinched. "Time to send you home." Ogremon looked surprised at his words as Takato pointed his device towards Ogremon, Ogremon actually looked grateful. Suddenly Ogremon was covered in a light that looked like binary and Ogremon disappeared.

"What was that just now?" asked Rika.

Suddenly she woke up. She sat up thinking about that dream; from what it seemed, Takato was weakening that Digimon in order to send it home, and from what Ogremon looked; Rika felt like that Ogremon was actually scared and confused and Takato was only helping it. Rika then yawns, still feeling tired so she laid back down to go back to sleep.

But before she could, she noticed a bright light on the floor. Rika got out of her bed and looked at it, it was the card scanner completely fixed and the blue card was gone; she picked up the scanner without thinking, suddenly it stopped glowing and the scanner revealed text.

"Please select your Digimon of choice. And place it in the slot"

Rika was very confused at this; she looked at the swipe slot knowing it meant her to swipe a Digimon card through it. She looked into her Digimon card box and rummaged through it; she took out a double of her favourite Digimon. Renamon, slowly she swipes the Renamon card through the scanner and it began to reveal letters and numbers like before; but this time the scanner began to glow. "What's going on!?"

Suddenly the scanner glowed white and it began to change shape. Now it appeared as the same device Takato was holding in her dream, she finally knew what it was. "A Digivice!? Something tells me that dream wasn't an ordinary dream."

* * *

_On an author's note, the Digivice is shaped differently than the one from Digimon Tamers. So it doesn't require modify cards, what does the Digivice look like? You decide._

* * *

Rika felt determined to find out the truth but she soon yawns again, she forgotten she's still tired so she left the Digivice on the desk and was about to go back to bed until she heard a knock at her slide-away door. Rika felt irritated as she wanted to go back to sleep but she answered it anyway.

No one was there, Rika looked from left to right and then down; then she just closes the door, suddenly she opened it again realising what she saw, it was a large yellow and purple egg left at her doorstep. Rika slowly picked it up realising what it is. "Is this… a Digi-Egg!?" she muttered to herself feeling shocked and amazed at the same time.

Rika soon calmed down and brought the Digi-Egg in and closed the door. She left the egg next to her bed as she lied back down into it; she was going to deal with the egg later as she fell back asleep. The longer she slept, the more she began to disbelieve the whole thing involving the Digivice and Digi-Egg, thinking it was most likely just a dream.

* * *

Morning had broken; it was Saturday so Rika could have a lie in, but it didn't last long as she slowly opened her eyes seeing the yellow and purple Digi-Egg still there, still having a bit of trouble believing it since she was half-asleep. Soon she then closed her eyes, but then she quickly opened them in shock and noticed something different about the Digi-Egg.

It was split in half, it hatched over night. Rika quickly kneeled up and began to look around for the hatched Digimon, she knew one thing, if her mother saw this, she would probably freak out or try to kill it thinking it was a rodent or something. Rika stood up and began to look around, she noticed that the Digivice's screen was glowing, Rika picked it up and noticed that it had a red arrow pointing forward; it was acting like a radar. Rika calmly followed it into the kitchen, she noticed her mother putting stuff in her purse, and she hasn't noticed Rika yet so she slowly passes her and continued to follow the arrow.

Rika made her way into the living room and noticed something staring at the computer screen; it was a yellow ball like creature with a tiny fox tail. It was the Digimon that hatched, Rika slowly picks it up, the Digimon looked at her with a sweet smile; Rika couldn't help but smirk at how cute it is, suddenly the Digivice pulled out a holographic screen showing the Digimon and its name 'Relemon'.

"Relemon? That's Renamon's baby level… well I gotta start somewhere I guess." she muttered.

Rika was incredibly surprised; she has in her hands a real life Digimon, which she thought was just a franchise, but her dream and the Digimon in her hands proved it was real as life itself, Rika even pinched herself to see if she was still dreaming, she wasn't though. Rika noticed she was still in her pyjamas, so she slowly walks past her mother again with Relemon in her hands and made her way back into her bedroom where she changed into her casual clothing.

"Rika?" her mother called "I have to go out somewhere; do you think you can cook your own breakfast today?"

"Sure thing." called Rika. She heard the door shut implying Rika's mother left already. Rika picks up Relemon and noticed that its stomach growled, Rika felt a little awkward, she has no idea what Digimon eat. Rika looked around the kitchen and looked for anything that a baby could eat, but there wasn't anything; she felt a little worried, she never knew she would have to mother the Digimon when she got it. "Guess I better go to the store and find something." she said feeling a bit awkward.

* * *

Later Rika arrived at the store holding Relemon in one hand; luckily it didn't move so people assumed it was a doll. She was looking at the baby products, she still looked confused. _"What do baby Digimon eat?" _she thought to herself.

As she continued to look around worried, she heard something. "Hey kid" Rika looked left to right noticing no one was around; she looked behind her and noticed a fifteen-year old boy. He had short blonde hair, he wore thin blue framed glasses, he also wore a black t-shirt with a white collar and line going down to a white rim at the bottom of his shirt, blue denim trousers and black trainers; the boy quickly threw something small at her which she catches with her free hand, what she caught was a bag of bite size marshmallows. She then looks at the boy. "That's what's best to feed a newborn Digimon." said the boy with a bit of a British accent.

Rika looked surprised at how the boy knew about real Digimon, and how he knew what she was looking for. Rika looks at the bag again for a second and then back to the boy. "H-How did you-" She noticed that the boy was gone, completely out of sight. She looked around seeing if she could find the boy, but no sign of him, she then looked at the bag of marshmallows again and then to her hungry Relemon; later she was at the counter paying for the marshmallows and she walks back home.

"_First I dream about Takato fighting a Digimon with a Digimon, then I get a Digivice and I become a mother to a Digimon. This day couldn't get any weirder." _she thought to herself while rubbing the side of her head, still having trouble processing all this.

* * *

Back at home, she was eating cereal while feeding Relemon marshmallows; since they were soft, it was easy for the baby Digimon to eat them. Thoughts were running through her head while she was feeding Relemon; who was that boy? Why did she get a Digivice and a baby Digimon? Does Takato have a Digimon too? These questions clouded her mind for quite a while.

Just after Rika and Relemon finished their breakfast, the phone began to ring. She looks towards the living room and then back to Relemon. "Stay here ok?" she said calmly, Rika left the kitchen leaving Relemon alone, she entered the living room and answered the phone.

"Hello?" There was no answer; instead there was a large static noise. She looks at the phone and noticed that all the lights on it were flickering rapidly; she looks around and noticed a few electronic appliances' lights were flickering also, Rika just shrugs her shoulders. "… Must be a short circuitry." Rika hung up and made her way back into the kitchen. "This day sure has been getting weirder and weirder- AAGH!"

Rika was shocked to see what had happened to Relemon. She was slightly bigger, had four stubby legs, a longer fox tail, her eyes were open revealing big blue eyes and had pointy ears. "Wh-what happened!?" Rika noticed the Digivice she had left on the kitchen table, so she picks it up and points it at her Digimon, a holographic screen showed up revealing the new Digimon and the name in which she muttered "Viximon… In-Training… she… she Digivolved!"

Rika looked at her new Digimon awkwardly; it was going to be much harder to hide her now that she has gotten slightly bigger, but she now understood why the marshmallows were best for Viximon. Somehow it sped up her Digivolution.

"R… Rika!"

Rika was surprised, Viximon spoke. She felt shocked and somewhat proud, it was probably the same feeling a mother gets when her baby says her first word, especially when it's her name. "Y-You said my name?"

Viximon ran across the table and jumped into Rika's arms. Rika couldn't help but feel somewhat embarrassed at how affectionate her Digimon was, but in a way, she also felt happy for it; Rika began to realise how much she has opened her heart to Viximon in such a short amount of time, she's never opened her heart to anyone, she just barely does it for Takato but that's just because he was the only person she ever properly interacted with unlike the other kids at school; she began to wonder if this'll affect her with others around her.

Much later on throughout the day, she has managed to keep Viximon a secret from her mother, she was even surprised how much Viximon has learned to talk, she even once had a full conversation with her Digimon and even taught her to pretend to be a toy so no one would suspect she was a real Digimon.

* * *

Much later at night, Rika was sleeping peacefully with Viximon snug in her left arm holding her like a teddy bear; she didn't feel embarrassed by this since she was doing it subconsciously, she held Viximon closer, but something wasn't right which caused her to wake up.

Viximon wasn't there, she woke up fully and looked around, she noticed that her slide away door was wide open and Viximon was staring at the stars. "Viximon, what are you doing?"

"I… sense something." said Viximon.

"Huh?" Suddenly a fog appeared far away from her house and in the town streets, but this fog was in a circular motion and in one small area, this fog was definitely not normal. Rika stood up to get a closer look; but then Viximon ran out of the house and was running towards the fog. "Viximon! Wait!"

Rika changed into her casual clothing as fast as she could, just as she was about to chase after Viximon, something came to her; she looked at her desk and noticed the Digivice, something in her gut told her that she needed it so she quickly picks it up and chases after her runaway Viximon. Since Rika took a little time getting changed, Viximon was quite far ahead but Rika was slowly catching up.

To her surprise, as she ran past, she noticed Takato was walking in the streets too carrying a large box. Rika just quickly ignored this as she continued to chase after Viximon "R-Rika!?" asked Takato looking shocked "What are you-"

"Not now Takato!" shouted Rika leaving the confused boy in her dust. Rika ran around a corner after Viximon who had just entered the fog so she ran into it too without hesitation. To her surprise the area was plain and there was so much fog it was hard to see where she was altogether, this felt too much like her dream; she noticed that Viximon had stopped, she was glaring ahead; even growling like something was there. Rika just picks up Viximon unaware of what was going to happen. "Don't run away from me like that! What if someone sees you?"

"D-Digimon!" growled Viximon

The confused Rika looked ahead and noticed something was coming. It was a black furred dinosaur shaped creature with metallic armour, big black wings and the end of its tail was ripped revealing a bunch of wires sparking off, its piercing red eyes intimidated Rika, she was so scared she couldn't move. Suddenly the creature shot out an iron ball from its mouth towards Rika; she quickly came to her senses and jumps to the right dodging the iron ball which shashed into a brick wall turning it into rubble immediatly. Rika pulls out her Digivice and points it at the creature revealing its name as 'DexDorugamon'.

"DexDorugamon! A champion level! Oh man, we're in trouble!"

Rika slowly stepped back readying to run as fast as she could. Just as DexDorugamon took one step, Rika quickly shot around and began to run, suddenly DexDorugamon quickly jumped up and landed in front of Rika stopping her from escaping so she quickly ran the other direction.

DexDorugamon began shooting more iron balls from its mouth, Rika ran to the left dodging the first one and she began to run in a blind direction just dodging the iron balls. "I can't believe this is happening!" said Rika in shock "First I get a real life Digimon and now I'm being attacked by another-" Suddenly one hit her legs, sweeping her legs off the ground causing her to fling to the side and land on the ground hard dropping Viximon a few feet away; Rika's leg was incredibly bruised and stunned so she couldn't move, she looks ahead and to her horror; DexDorugamon picked up the scared Viximon and was reading to eat her, Rika couldn't move or do anything for that matter.

"NO VIXIMON!" Rika cried. Suddenly there was a bright light coming from her Digivice attached to her belt. She looks towards Viximon and DexDorugamon; Viximon glowed so bright it pushed back DexDorugamon a few feet. Rika looked in amazement as to what was happening. Suddenly Viximon was encased in a large blue light shaped like a digital egg.

"Viximon Digivolve to…"

Suddenly the blue egg exploded giving off a huge shock wave of blue light looking like pixels; Viximon was now a human shaped fox wearing purple gloves and had purple spirals around the front of her thighs

"Renamon!"

Rika was astonished at this; Viximon had Digivolved into Renamon, her Digimon of choice. DexDorugamon looked surprised at first but then it grew fierce and changed towards Renamon, but Renamon's fists and feet quickly glowed a blue flame.

"Power Paw!" Suddenly Renamon began to rapidly punch and kick DexDorugamon dealing some massive damage, her fist and feet were like a blur making small gusts of wind around the Digimon. After one more kick, DexDorugamon was flown far and hit the ground hard, but DexDorugamon quickly got up and fired another iron ball from its mouth, Renamon quickly spaced out her arms and a bunch of crystals appeared around her.

"_Could it be?" _Thought Rika _"Renamon's special attack?"_

"Diamond Storm!" Renamon shot thousands of crystal shards at the iron ball destroying it and impaling DexDorugamon rapidly. DexDorugamon collapsed onto the ground injured.

DexDorugamon began to glow a faint white light before it changed into a small furry dinosaur like creature with a long fox like tail and pointy ears, Rika slowly takes out her Digivice and points it at the smaller Digimon.

"Dorumon?" mumbled Rika "It DeDigivolved back into a rookie level." Dorumon got up slowly and looked around, then it ran up to Renamon and began rubbing itself along her leg showing its affection. Rika was incredibly confused.

"The poor guy Dark Digivolved"

Rika looks to her right and notices the same blonde boy from before; he takes out a Digivice and points it at Dorumon. The Digimon was then covered in a light that looked like a combination of binary and pixels, Dorumon then disappeared, the boy disappeared in the same type of binary light. Just after that, Renamon began to glow and it changed back into Viximon who quickly ran up to Rika.

"Viximon! … I'm so glad you're safe." said Rika almost feeling like she was about to cry in relief "You're not hurt are you?"

"Nope, I'm just fine!" said Viximon wagging her tail

Rika imemdiatly hugged Viximon with her left arm feeling glad she wasn't hurt. "Rika!?" called a familiar voice. Rika looked ahead and noticed that Takato had entered the fog which soon disappeared. Viximon stood still next to Rika acting like a doll. Takato looked concerned and confused seeing Rika on the ground like that. "Rika! Are you alright!?" he asked sounding panicked

"I… I don't know, I can't seem to move my leg." grunted Rika trying to move it

"H-How come?" asked Takato.

Rika knew she had to keep this Digimon battle a secret, she wasn't sure she could trust Takato yet. "I… tripped and landed on my leg hard" she muttered, she felt like she said a stupid reason, but Takato bends his knees down and grabs Rika's hand helping her stand up, but Rika's leg was still stunned so she couldn't move it, in fact without leaning on Takato, she would collapse on the ground again. She kept her right arm around Takato to keep standing and her left arm around Viximon to keep her safe.

"Well I'm glad you're safe. Let's get you home." said Takato.

"Thanks." said Rika.

Takato began to help Rika home dragging her stunned leg. So far Takato doesn't seem aware that Viximon is a real Digimon or her Digimon battle occoured; she felt she'll have to keep it a secret, but on the other hand, she's been hinted that Takato could have a Digimon too because of her dream, how he mentioned a blue card and an electric shock from the card scanner. Tomorrow she is going to find the truth, one way or another; but for now, she just wanted to go back to bed.

The end for now.

* * *

_Just to clarify, while I had a ton chapters done before, I'm not going to submit them as I finish remaking them, what I'm going to do is remake all of them and submit two chapters per week to keep it at a nice easy pace. It will be updated on every Monday and Friday._

_In addition, the original Rika's AU will be removed, so I'm afraid you're going to have to wait for your favourite chapter to turn up._


	2. Takato's Trust

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 2: Takato's Trust**

It was a bright and sunny afternoon. Rika was sitting on a bench in her back garden holding Viximon while thinking about the events that took place last night; how Viximon Digivolved to fight a DexDorugamon, also how Takato helped her home, but the question in her mind was, who was that boy? The same boy who gave her the right food for Viximon when she was a Relemon and he sent DexDorugamon away and why didn't the boy bother to help her when she couldn't move?

Rika looked at her leg, the same leg which had been struck by the DexDorugamon Iron Ball attack, it wasn't broken, but it was close to so Rika had to wear a cast to keep it safe according to the doctor, but it can be removed tomorrow just as long as she doesn't push it. Her mother however was quite confused as to how that happened, Rika said that she heard something outside so she went to check it out, as a result, she tripped and landed on that leg hard, but luckily Takato was there to help her.

Rika heard a noise on her right, she noticed Takato entering the back gate readying to greet her with that cheerful smile as usual, but this time he had a backpack on for whatever reason. Viximon pretended to be a doll again as Takato sat down next to Rika. "Hey Rika, how does your leg feel?" he asked with his cheerful tone, but had sounded a bit concerned too.

"Its ok now" said Rika "I still need this stupid cast but I can take it off tomorrow."

"That's good… it's quite a surprise how you got it just by tripping." said Takato "I mean, you're one tough girl, I figured something like tripping would've been something you could've brushed away."

Rika fell silent for a second looking at Viximon, Takato looked at her concerned, and then he looked at Viximon.

"Umm… Rika…?" Rika looked back at Takato "What you said last night… about hurting your leg… did you really hurt it by tripping?"

"You… don't believe me?" asked Rika. Takato was always the gullible one, she always got away with her faint lies to him, to see Takato calling her bluffs was somewhat surprising.

"It seems hard to believe coming from you… but… if you're not ready to tell me, then I understand." said Takato.

Rika fell silent once more, she knew one thing… Takato knows something about this, she has to know, even if it means revealing her secret, she knows she can trust Takato after all, she always felt that Takato was the only one she could trust.

Rika let out a quiet sigh and faced Takato once more "Takato… last night I dreamt about you." Takato began to blush, soon Rika knew what he's thinking and she began to blush too realising that what she said could give him the wrong idea. "N-Not anything like that! I meant fighting a Digimon!"

"O-Oh right… fighting a Digimon?" Takato asked, still feeling a bit embarrassed.

Rika soon explained everything about her dream, and how she got her Digivice and Viximon, throughout her explanation, Takato had looked confused, but then looked like he understood everything. "So… that doll you've been carrying." said Takato

Viximon began to move and she looked at Takatowho immediately had a surprised look at first but then he looked normal. "H-Hi there." said Viximon sounding cheery, but had a bit of trouble saying her words, no surprise since she had just learned to talk yesterday. Rika felt a bit more suspicious now over Takato, he seemed a bit neutral to have seen a real life Digimon when most people would've freaked out.

"I thought it seemed suspicious" said Takato "So how you really hurt your leg?"

"I was attacked by a DexDorugamon; it shot an Iron Ball at my leg stunning it. Then when DexDorugamon was going to eat Viximon, she Digivolved into Renamon." said Rika.

"But I… couldn't keep my form for long… so I changed back." said Viximon looking a bit annoyed.

Rikathen faced Takato once more, this time she had a bit of a glare to it surprising Takato "There… now I've told you everything… what about any secrets you're keeping from me."

Takato nods "Of course… you deserve to know the truth… but this better for me to show you than tell you, we'll need to go to the park for that, can you walk?"

"Of course." Rika slowly stood up and picked up a crutch leant against the bench to keep her balance, she then looked towards her bedroom. "Hey mom!"

"Yes sweetheart?" asked her mother.

"I'm going to the park with Takato." said Rika.

"Ok, but be careful! You don't want to damage that leg even more do you?" said her mother.

"I'll be careful." said Rika. With that the two walked out of Rika's garden and into the streets.

* * *

Rika and Takato continued their walk to the park, Takato had helped her get across some stuff she couldn't do alone such as opening doors, climbing up stairs and crossing roads. Throughout this, Rika felt somewhat safe to be with him, but she soon drowned out those thoughts. _"We're just friends!" _Rika continued to repeat those words in her head as the two continued their way to the park, she held onto Viximon tight to make sure she didn't drop her.

Soon the two finally made it to the park, she noticed a concrete cage like place in the park, she's seen that so many times but she never bothered to go into it. Takato soon lets go of Rika and walks up to the other side of the cage facing the entrance. He whistles like calling a pet, suddenly a red dinosaur like creature ran out with a cheerful expression, this made Rika jump a little, but then she realised that the creature is Guilmon, the same Digimon Rika saw in her dream.

"I knew it!" Rika muttered.

"Hey Takatomon! Did you bring any bread?" asked Guilmon.

"Takatomon?" asked Rika, feeling slightly amused.

"He… calls me that." said Takato rubbing he back of his head feeling embarrassed "It's kinda my nickname to him."

Guilmon noticed Rika and he quickly turns to Takato. "Hey Takatomon, is she your girlfriend?"

Both Rika and Takato blush at his question, then again he wasn't the first person who asked that question, but it still seemed startling to her since Guilmon had just met her. "O-Of course not! We're just friends!" said Takato.

"Then why is your face red?" asked Guilmon who began to chuckle at Takato's bright red face. Guilmon really got Takato with that question, Rika couldn't help but smirk at Takato's embarrassed face, it was quite funny to see him like that, but she soon forced her smirk away, growing sick of people constantly asking if she and Takato are a couple.

"Well… why is **your** face red?" asked Takato. Rika felt as if Takato had just asked a stupid question, then again it was probably the only comeback he could think of.

"Maybe you should ask Rika why her face is red." chuckled Viximon.

Rika blushed even more now, she felt as embarrassed as Takato now. "V-Viximon!"

"Another Digimon?" asked Guilmon as he brought his attention to Viximon in Rika's arms "Is that why you're introducing me to your friend?"

"Y-Yeah, I saw her with her Digimon so that's why I took you back before we entered that Digital Zone." said Takato.

"And to think I stuffed myself into that box again for nothing." grumbled Guilmon.

"_That explains the box last night." _thought Rika:, soon it occurred to her "Wait… so you knew Viximon was a Digimon before I told you!?"

"Yeah" said Takato feeling a bit embarrassed "But I felt as if it was best for you to tell me than me to get straight to the point, I wasn't sure if you could trust me with that."

"So… did you get Guilmon before I got Viximon?" asked Rika, but a slightly more important question to her occurred "But you didn't want to tell me because you wasn't sure you could trust me?"

"Y-Yeah, really sorry" said Takato feeling a more guilty than embarrassed now "I got Guilmon six months before you."

"Did you get him as a Digi-Egg too?" asked Rika.

"No, my Digivice pointed me to where he was being transported to, so I just followed it and I ended up at some sort of abandoned factory. Since Guilmon is too big to keep in my room or house for that matter, we decided to make this place a home for him."

Rika felt now her dream might have been an event from the past "By any chance have you faced an Ogremon yet? Or even Digivolved?"

"Not yet… in fact I've hardly faced any Digimon that enter our world. No doubt they're coming from the Digital World." said Takato

"_Guess that dream was to just tell me he had a Digimon." _she thought "Hm… I know you had Guilmon for six months now, but how are you so informed about this?"

"Oh right… a kid with blue glasses told me" said Takato "He said if I ever find a Digimon emerging from a foggy area called a Digital Zone, I should use my Digivice to return it to the Digital World where it belongs, though we have to fight them every time."

"Blue glasses?" she muttered. The thoughts of the blond boy wearing blue glasses came to her; she now knew that boy knows a lot about Digimon. "Did he give you his name?"

"Nope, but he has a Digivice too, so no doubt he's a tamer too. Do you meet him too?" asked Takato.

"Yeah, he gave me a bag of marshmallows for Viximon when she was a Relemon." said Rika "And then he sent DexDorugamon back to the digital world after Viximon Digivolved and beat him and then he just disappeared."

"So you never saw his Digimon?" asked Takato.

"No, either way I like how he helped me out, but I really don't like how he just left me while I was injured." said Rika looking a bit angry now. Rika felt as if she has heard enough, feeling her leg inside the cast starting to cramp slightly, she knew it was time for her to get home soon. "Well in any case I should get back home." she said after letting out a sigh.

"Sure, I'll help you of course." said Takato until he felt Guilmon pushing his nose against his leg.

"Did you get any bread?" asked Guilmon

"Oh right, almost forgot, hang on." Takato opens up a bag he kept on his shoulder and took out a bag of large bread and gave it to Guilmon who held it in his mouth.

"Thank you!" Guilmon ran back in his concrete home to enjoy his bread. Then Rika and Takato began to walk back home, Takato once again helped Rika with the stuff she couldn't do on her own.

* * *

As they arrived at Rika's house in the back garden, Rika went back onto her garden bench. Just as Takato was about to sit next to her, there was a sudden beeping sound coming from their Digivices. They both took out their Digivices, Rika was confused at the screen which shown a black arrow pointing west. "Another Digimon has bio-emerged into our world." Rika stood up again but this time Takato placed his hands on her shoulders before she could even take a step. "Wait Rika! It may be best if you stay here, you could damage your leg even more."

"What makes you think I will!?" asked Rika feeling annoyed to be ordered about by Takato.

"I'm just asking as a friend; take that leg of yours easy. Not to mention Viximon might not be able to Digivolve during this fight. It was probably a fluke last time." said Takato.

Rika was quite surprised at how serious and mature Takato sounds; normally he was cheerful and somewhat immature. But in this case, Takato was right, Rika had only got her Digimon yesterday while Takato has had his for six months so naturally he would be more experienced with this stuff than Rika. Rika sat back down onto the bench which relieved Takato. "… fine." Rika muttered.

"Thanks, and don't worry, I'll be fine." Takato ran off jumping over the gate and he dashed towards west. Rika just sighed with annoyance; that was literally the first time she was ever ordered by Takato and followed it; but Takato was right, she hardly put up a fight even before her leg was damaged against the last Digimon. She looks down at Viximon who had a cute smirk across her face.

"So you're just gonna sit here and let your 'knight in shining armour' do the fighting for you?" asked Viximon in a joking tone.

Rika blushed again, this time with irritation mixed into it. "Viximon! We're! Just! FRIENDS! There's nothing special between us! We're just friends! That's it! Nothing else!"

"Then why are you blushing?" Viximon asked.

"Because you're embarrassing me!" said Rika "Why can't a girl and boy be friends without everyone thinking they're a couple!? Its just plain stupid! Now can you please drop this!?"

"Ok! No need to lose your temper." said Viximon looking concerned "I just want to know why your just gonna let goggle head do the fighting for you?"

"My leg is almost broken, I can't fight in this condition." said Rika "Not to mention you were almost Digimon food last time, so we're just going to wait until you can Digivolve to rookie before we get into any real fights."

"Ok" Viximon muttered. Rika sighs once more; she knew she couldn't stay mad at Viximon; after all, she's only a day old and she only brought this up from Guilmon's question. But she was now glad that Takato told her everything, now she knows that Takato is also a Digimon Tamer. She notices a faint smell coming from her house, it was no doubt almost time for dinner, so gets off the bench and walks back inside to feed Viximon before then.

The end for now.


	3. The Third Digimon Tamer

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 3: The Third Digimon Tamer**

Monday. Normally a day where most students are tired and groggy, except Rika since she's not as lazy as the other students; she had left Viximon at home asking her to wait for her; she knew she couldn't bring her to school for obvious reasons. After Rika closed her locker after getting her books, she noticed another girl with long red hair like hers, but it wasn't tied back; it was Jeri Katou, a friend of Takato as well. So in a sense, Jeri would be her friend as well, but she doesn't interact with Takato's other friends as well as Takato himself. "Hey Rika." she said in her typical cheery tone.

"Oh hey Jeri" said Rika with a slight irritated tone, but tried her best to mask it "What do you want?"

"I was just thinking… the school dance is only a month away right?" asked Jeri.

You're a bit early to be thinking about-" Something came to Rika; she knew what Jeri was going to ask but she felt she had to ask anyway. "What are you getting at?"

"Oh nothing in particular, I'm just wondering if you're going?" said Jeri.

"Oh… no." Rika thought she was going to ask if she was going with Takato, being asked if she and him were a couple was a very common topic "The school dance is just dumb; only an idiot would go there just to move around like a lunatic." she said in an irritated tone, this time with no mask.

"Wow… you seem colder than usual." said Jeri looking concerned. "Well… you're usually cold anyway… except to Takato."

"So? … me and Takato are just friends." said Rika "You're friends with Takato too aren't you?"

"Yeah but no one expected you to not act so cold to Takato like the others." said Jeri "That's probably the reason why most other people think you… 'Like' Takato, if you catch my drift." on the word 'like' she did the two finger gesture.

Rika let out an annoyed sigh "There's nothing going on between me and Takato, and I'm personally getting sick of people always getting the wrong idea. I'm surprised no one's saying the same to you."

"I guess" said Jeri "Y'know, something has been bugging me-"

"Is the next question is about Takato again? It better not be!" she threatened.

"S-Sorry.." she said nervously "But how did you two first meet?"

Rika was actually surprised at this question; no one has ever asked her that question. "Fine… if you must know, we met three years ago during the Digimon Card Tournament. I faced Takato on the second round and I slaughtered him; when I won the tournament, he came to me in the hallways of the tournament and asked me to teach him how to be better at Digimon cards. I thought it was kinda humiliating of him how I beat him so quickly, I guess you could say I pitied him, so I accepted; one thing led to another and we eventually became friends."

"I see… so nothing to do with love… just pity?" asked Jeri

"Yes, and if you ask Takato, he'll say the same as me." said Rika.

"Ok… I'll ask him now. Thanks Rika." With that, Jeri left, she felt glad she's gone now. In a way Jeri was right, Takato was the only person she wasn't cold to; Rika honestly had no idea why, to her, Takato always seemed like the person she couldn't stay mad at.

* * *

Later on at lunch time, Rika was just leaving the cafeteria until she noticed something; Takato was talking to two more of his friends, Kazu Shioda and Kenta Kitagawa. "So Jeri told us you first met Rika three years ago in a card tournament right?

Rika knew Takato was going to say the same as her, but she couldn't help but try to listen in, so she hides behind a wall listening in onto Takato's conversation. "Yeah that's right" said Takato.

"Was it love at first sight?" chuckled Kenta

"We're just friends Kenta!" said Takato sounding slightly annoyed, Rika was glad Takato thought the same.

"So how did you two meet exactly?" asked Kazu.

"Let's see… three years ago, we faced each other in the second round of the Digimon Card Tournament, I lost big time… so I decided, who ever wins the tournament I was gonna ask to train me so I can beat Rika again." said Takato.

"But as it turned out, Rika was the one who won right?" chuckled Kenta.

"You planned to beat Rika by being trained by the winner, but the winner turned out to be Rika herself… I think that's a little ironic." said Kazu.

"Well either way, I asked her anyway and she accepted… not sure why though, she looked like the silent and 'I don't want any friends' type. But hey, one thing led to another and we became friends, it shows she does have a heart… somewhere" said Takato.

"Yeah, but she's only nice to you." said Kenta "As you know; me, Kazu and Jeri don't really get along with Rika."

"Yeah I know… you should give her some time" said Takato "After all, we barely became friends so it may take her time to get along with the rest of you." Rika felt relieved about Takato's answer, it proves that there's nothing between her and him. But she was quite surprised at how Takato really just wanted to beat her in a card game.

"Ok… and one more question?" said Kazu

"This isn't about Rika is it?" asked Takato "Because I'm getting tired of people asking me about her, in fact Jeri came not long ago to ask the same question."

"Sorry... but are you taking Rika to the school dance?" asked Kazu

"What!?" exclaimed Takato, Rika couldn't see, but she knew he was blushing. "N-no! She's not going! And neither am I?"

"Why not?" asked Kenta.

"I always embarrass myself whenever I go dancing, so I'm saving the humiliation by not going." said Takato

Kazu began to chuckle "I get it… so you and Rika are just gonna hang out alone away from the school then."

Rika began to blush now, she really felt embarrassed and annoyed; she knew Takato must be blushing too. "N-NO! We're just friends! I'm staying home to play on my games! I don't know what Rika's gonna do but I know it doesn't involve any sort of romance, she's not into it and neither am I!"

"Calm down dude!" said Kazu sounding worried "Sheesh, the way you react it's almost like you're in love with the red head."

Takato lets out a sigh "Well I'm not. Why can't a boy and girl be friends without everyone thinking their a couple? I mean c'mon, you two hang out with Jeri more than I do, does that mean you two are in love with her too?" Rika couldn't help but smirk; she said the same thing yesterday and Takato's last question did hold water.

"Nope" said Kazu.

"She's not my type." said Kenta.

"My point exactly." said Takato, almost sounding smug.

"Alright, alright… well we'll catch you later." said Kazu.

"Yeah, we gotta get ready for gym class." said Kenta.

"Alright, see ya there." said Takato, sounding relieved to get off the subject.

Rika was relieved; she now knows Takato doesn't have any feelings for her, and hopefully this will stop all the students from asking those questions, though doubtful. Rika began to walk around the corner until-

BUMP!

Rika bumped into something causing her to fall flat onto her backside, she noticed it was Takato who also fell back. "Takato?"

She also noticed a few remaining students who were watching, then she looks at Takato who got up and held out his hand asking to help her up "Sorry, need some help?" asked Takato.

If Rika grabbed Takato's hand, this would probably hint people thinking they're a couple, especially since there are so many prying eyes, so Rika quickly got up without Takato's help. "I don't need help."

"Oh right, sorry." said Takato sounding nervous "I forgot you don't have your cast anymore."

"Right. Well anyway, I should go." said Rika, with that she left the cafeteria leaving Takato behind.

* * *

Later on she was on the hillside watching the beautiful view, she wasn't too fond of it, but it did somehow calm her down; she began to think about Viximon, wondering if she's ok on her own? After all she's only a baby still, even if she is in her In-Training form.

Suddenly something caught her attention; it was a small cardboard box walking into the alley between the school buildings. The box was small enough to fit a cat, but… something didn't feel right and she could've sworn she just saw something yellow and furry sticking out of the box. Rika suddenly grew worried.

"_Please tell me I didn't just see what I think I saw!" _thought Rika feeling panicked

Rika stood up quickly and began to quickly follow the box. She ran into the alley and followed the one way path, as she got to the end; she noticed a door which was slightly opened; she slowly walked past the door noticing that it lead to a hallway, one she wasn't too familiar with mostly because her locker wasn't here. She slowly walked across the hallway hoping no one sees her, unfortunately what she saw around the corner was a crowd of people looking at a teacher holding the small box, but it was empty.

"We have a problem!" said a gruff looking teacher "A rat problem by the looks of it! This strange yellow rat was roaming around this beautiful school with its hideous infections; we must catch and kill it at all costs!"

The heat was on now; Rika now had to find Viximon before anyone else does. Rika quickly ran past the crowd ignoring their reactions to her, she came across the end of the hallway where it split into two different paths, there was also a set of stairs which led up to the roof of the school. She had to make a quick choice of where Viximon could've gone; suddenly she remembered something, her Digivice.

Rika quickly pulled her Digivice off her school belt and looked for a red arrow on it, it pointed upstairs. Rika was surprised how Viximon got upstairs but she didn't care as she bolted up the stairs preying no one has found Viximon.

As Rika finally made it to the roof of the school, she finally found Viximon cornered into a wall, but to her horror, what cornered her was a blue haired boy wearing a backpack readying to pick up Viximon. Rika quickly dashed towards the boy without even thinking of the consequences.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" The boy looked before he could pick up Viximon, but before he could say anything, Rika quickly shot her fist square in the boy's nose shooting him a few feet back and landing flat on his back. She wiped the blood off her fist and then picked up Viximon and held her closely. "Viximon are you ok?!"

"Yeah, but the boy your hit wasn't going to hurt me." said Viximon looking at the boy.

She noticed the boy slowly getting up holding his bleeding nose, almost hearing some sort of swear word coming from him. "That was a cheap shot you pulled there!" said the boy looking both annoyed and scared, likely scared of being hit again.

"He was going to put me in a safe place away from the other humans." said Viximon.

"Is this true?" she asked to Viximon

"Yeah! Next time think before you punch someone like a maniac!" said the boy, suddenly a white humanoid rabbit creature shot out of the boy's backpack. It was a Digimon known as Terriermon.

"What was that?" asked Terriermon who looked a bit sore, likely because he was in the backpack and Henry landed on him.

"A Terriermon!? You're a Digimon Tamer too!?" asked Rika sounding surprised.

"Yeah…" The boy wipes the blood off his faces and he looks at Rika with a calm look. "My name is Henry Wong… I've been a Digimon Tamer for eight months."

"Rika Nonaka… I've been a Tamer for… three days." she felt a bit embarrassed, now to have met two tamers who were more experienced than her, she hated feeling like a newbie.

"Hey Henry! Looks like we got a rookie in our sights." said Terriermon looking happy.

"Don't call me that rabbit!" threatened Rika making both Henry and Terriermon move back.

"Hey Rika!" Rika looked behind her and noticed Takato who had just arrived, he walked up to her calmly as he noticed Viximon in her hands. "I heard someone discovered Viximon, glad you were able to find her before someone else did." Takato then quickly noticed Henry and Terriermon. "Hey… your that Henry kid right?"

"You know him?" asked Rika

"He's in the same class as me, we hardly spoke though." said Takato.

"So are you a Digimon Tamer too?" asked Henry.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I am. I'm Takato Matsuki."

"Well anyway…" interrupted Rika as she looked down to Viximon "What are you doing here? I told you to stay home."

"I saw a Digital Zone just outside the school so I came to warn you." said Viximon sounding concerned.

"A Digital Zone!? C'mon Terriermon!" Henry ran off with Terriermon still in his bag.

"C'mon Takato! We got to get that Digimon back to its own world." said Rika.

"But Guilmon is still in his home, I can't get to him in time." said Takato sounding nervous.

"Fine! C'mon Viximon, you can take this Digimon on!" Rika ran off as she quickly puts Viximon in her backpack in order to remain undetected as she ran past the crowds looking for Viximon and arrived outside the school. Viximon was right; there was a Digital Zone; so Rika quickly entered it as she took Viximon out of her backpack.

Henry was already in the Digital Zone and Terriermon was out of the bag ready to battle. Rika ran next to Henry while holding Viximon. Suddenly out came a purple dragon like creature with drill-like claws, Henry took out is Digivice and pointed it at the Digimon; its name revealed to be Monodramon.

"Monodramon… a Rookie Level." muttered Henry. Monodramon quickly charged towards the two Tamers but they both jump out of the way.

"Bunny Blast!" shouted Terriermon and blasted out a huge green orb at Monodramon blasting him back. Rika jumps far back letting Terriermon and Henry deal with Monodramon, she took out her Digivice and placed Viximon onto the floor.

"Ok Viximon, its time to Digivolve! Rika pointed her Digivice at Viximon hoping she would Digivolve into Renamon again, but the Digivice did nothing. Rika looked at it and began to shake it. "C'mon! c'mon! We need Viximon to Digivolve!"

"Rika look out!" shouted Henry. Rika looked ahead and noticed Monodramon charging towards her with its claw ready to strike, Rika quickly picked up Viximon and jumped to the right dodging the claw; Rika lands on the ground hard on her side, slightly hurting herself. She looked and noticed Monodramon attempting to attack her again so she quickly rolls to the side dodging the claw attack again.

Rika quickly jumps back onto her feet and takes out her Digivice again hoping to try and Digivolve Viximon again, but it failed once more. "At the worst time!"

Monodramon tries to attack Rika again but suddenly a green energy orb blasted Monodramon. Rika looks and noticed Terriermon charging towards Monodramon readying another Bunny Blast attack. She then looked towards Henry. "She's too young to Digivolve, get to a safe spot fast!"

Rika knew she had to listen to him, considering Viximon cannot fight as an In-Training and she was almost attacked by Monodramon. So Rika began to run from the Digital Zone, although she would've wanted to fight too.

Suddenly Monodramon jumped in front of Rika causing her to jump back in shock; Monodramon attempted to attack Rika again but this time she ducks dodging its claw and she then throws herself past Monodramon dodging the second claw attack. She quickly gets up and runs away from Monodramon as he gets blasted by another of Terriermon's Bunny Blast attacks.

Rika ran towards the edge of the Digital Zone where she watched the battle from a safe distance. Rika actually felt scared, she has had far too many close calls in this battle and DexDorugamon almost killed Viximon too which she felt responsible for. Suddenly Monodramon struck Terriermon with its claw, but before it could launch a second attack on Terriermon, he began to glow. Henry's Digivice began to glow too. "What the-" Henry exclaimed.

* * *

**DIGIVOLUTION**

Suddenly Terriermon was covered in a green digitized egg.

" Terriermon Digivolve too…"

Suddenly the digitized egg exploded making a shockwave, Terriermon was now larger with machineguns for hands and wore denim trousers.

"Gargomon!"

* * *

"He Digivolved!?" exclaimed Henry sounding shocked. But something wasn't right, Gargomon began firing his machinegun fists everywhere destroying anything that wasn't wall or tree as Gargomon looked panicked.

"AGHH! I can't control them! Get out of the way FAST!" Gargomon blasted everything, including Monodramon knocking it out; suddenly Gargomon's bullets were making their way towards Rika across the ground like a lit fuse trail. Rika was too scared to move and she actually began to scream.

"LOOK OUT!" Suddenly Takato tackled Rika sending her behind a nearby wall, Rika was just about half a centimetre from being pelted with bullets. Her, Viximon and Takato stayed safe behind the wall; Rika was shivering in fear, she was almost killed by an accidental shot from Henry's Gargomon.

Rika suddenly became deaf, the only thing she could hear was a long ringing sound that came from the guns, she now felt what it was like for the military soldiers after a loud explosion. She noticed Takato shouting to her but she couldn't make out of what it was he was saying, in fact she couldn't even hear herself think, she felt she was on the verge of fainting, she was incredibly close to dieing back there. Soon the ringing faded, she now heard Takato's yelling and the gunshots from Gargomon's guns.

"Rika! Please answer! Are you alright!?" asked Takato sounding scared for her.

Rika was still too traumatized to answer. Soon the gunshots stopped; she was able to hear what was going on.

"What the HELL was that about Gargomon!?" shouted Henry sounding both angry and scared.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" said Gargomon sounding panicked "I couldn't control them!"

Henry let out a sigh of relief "Well I'm glad no on was hurt… except maybe the Monodramon. I better send him back to the digital world before he gets hurt again… as for you, lets try to get you to Degenerate!"

"Ok… wait, where's that Rika girl!?" asked Gargomon. Henry and Gargomon arrive around the wall where Takato, Rika and Viximon were. Rika was still in shock. Soon she felt a something warm and wet trickle down the side of her head as she continued to shiver.

"R-Rika! Your head! Its bleeding! … Rika!?" said Takato still sounding worried.

Rika still remained silent, but soon she was able to move her lips to ask one question. "… A-Are… all Digimon like that when they Digivolve?"

The end for now


	4. Experimental Tamers

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 4: Experimental Tamers**

Rika was lying on a bed in the nurses office with a bandage across her head covering the cut she got earlier, it was most likely when she landed on the ground when Takato tackled her to dodge Gargomon's bullets. Although it was accidental, the event still traumatized her, she was still shivering from it even though that was an hour ago. She even began to think, she was only a Tamer for three days and faced two Digimon, both times she was put in absolute peril which risked both her and Viximon's life, and both times she was lucky to have even survived. So she's decided one very solution to all this. _"__Never again will I fight another Digimon…"_

She looks to her right and noticed the sleeping Viximon; she decided to keep her away from bio-emerging Digimon so she can remain safe, Rika would be kept safe also.

Not long later Takato entered the room looking ever so concerned. Rika looks ahead and actually felt glad to see him, though she never shown the expression. For now she felt she couldn't show any other emotion except fear; Takato sat onto a chair next to Rika. Rika slowly moved herself to sit up to properly meet Takato. "Are you alright?"

"I… I don't know… that was just horrifying… I could've died at any second… if you hadn't had saved me…" said Rika

Takato began to blush. "Well… I had to do something… we're friends after all."

"Y-Yeah… **just** friends. Thanks… I really owe you one." said Rika.

"Actually you don't, you taught me how to be a better card player, I saved your life. We're even." said Takato. Rika felt as if teaching him how to be a better card player was nothing compared to Takato saving her life making her somewhat feel guilty as well. She looks at her right hand and noticed it was still shivering. Takato notices this and was reminded of something "Oh yeah, I told the principle about what happened."

Rika's trauma immediately went away hearing that, she then quickly sat up facing Takato who now began to look scared "You told him about Gargomon!?"

"N-No" said Takato looking panicked "I told him you were almost shot by a bunch of gangsters, luckily the sound of gunfire and bullet holes everywhere supported my lie. I even told her of the trauma you were in and he agreed to let you go home early."

"Good… I don't think I can continue like this." Rika slowly got out of the bed and picked up Viximon without waking her. But as soon as Rika took one step, she lost her balance and almost fell until Takato caught her by grabbing her waist. Rika began to blush at where Takato's hands were, but she knew she couldn't walk home on her own, although this may make people think her and Takato are a couple, but at this point she doesn't care at all. "Takato, can you help me get home?"

"Of course. The principle said I had to anyway." said Takato as he smiled, trying to cheer Rika up.

* * *

Later on, Rika and Takato were walking quite slowly towards her house. There was no rush at all and Rika was still shaken up from that incident so she had to take her time, Takato was helping her keep balance by holding her right arm and her left shoulder like a sort of hug. Rika clutched Viximon close to her with her free hand, she knew she had to tell Takato her thoughts of that event. "Takato?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me this… never let me fight another Bio-Emerging Digimon again." said Rika, Takato looked at her in a confused manner "I may have only faced two but they were too much for me to handle. I got off lucky twice but not without them making some bad impression on me, from now on I'm just gonna raise Viximon without battling. I don't want Viximon to Digivolve; not if she's going to end up like Gargomon."

Takato was silent for a moment, Rika knew Takato knew that she wasn't herself. But at the same time, these events could affect anyone like this, especially someone as tough and headstrong like herself; at this point she felt as fragile as a kitten, she just looks at Takato who just gave out a small smile. "Ok Rika… I understand" Rika let out a small smile afterwards.

Later the two finally arrived at Rika's house, Rika opens the door and the two enter and make their way to Rika's bedroom. Rika's mother wasn't here as usual, she was out modelling for another magazine again.

As they entered Rika's bedroom, Takato slowly took is hands off Rika to see if she could walk properly now, she was still a little shaky but she was able to walk on her own now, she looks at Takato with what seemed to be a smile. Then she placed the sleeping Viximon onto her bed to rest. Rika let out a short sigh before facing Takato, "Thanks a lot."

"No problem." Takato looked around and noticed that Rika's mother wasn't here. "Y'know… I don't think I've ever seen your mother a lot, is she always out?"

"Yeah, she's a model for new fashionable dresses for all seasons." said Rika having a disgusted tone "I personally see no point in fashion, I just wear what a like and I don't give a damn at what other people think."

Takato let out a slight chuckle ""I had a similar problem with my goggles. Most people said I look silly with them, but I kept them on anyway. They eventually stopped."

"Even I think you look silly in them" said Rika cracking a small smirk "But they do suit you I guess."

"Yeah… quick question, is your mother's name Rumiko Nonaka?" asked Takato.

"Yeah why?" suddenly Rika grew nervous realising what Takato might say "Oh no…"

"I thought so. I saw you in one of her magazines, wearing a red and white chequered summer dress with a hat to match." said Takato sounding a bit confused.

Rika began to feel embarrassed. "Y-Yeah… that was me… I have to do some modelling for my mother's stupid magazines for the kids section."

"Well if it makes you feel any better. I was the only one who recognized you." said Takato.

"How does that make me feel any better!?" asked Rika still sounding annoyed.

"I saw that photo of you in a magazine that was being held by all the girls in your class, none of them recognized you at all. In fact they envied you." Takato then let out a light chuckle.

"Well I guess that makes me feel a little better I suppose, at least I won't be made fun of." Rika began to calm down a little.

"And I didn't recognize you either until you told me your mother was a model… might have been because no one can ever picture you in anything… feminine." said Takato.

"How cute."

Rika and Takato quickly shot their heads to the right and noticed the same blonde boy from before looking at a photograph. "You?! How did you get here!?" said Rika looking angry again.

"How else? I teleported." said the boy.

"Teleported!? W-What are you doing here anyway!?" asked Takato.

The boy turned around facing Rika and Takato fiddling with the photograph in his hand. "Forgive me for intruding… but I was watching your little fight today… I'm quite surprised at how you were almost killed by that Gargomon. I guess that shows what happens when a Tamer gets his Digimon from a videogame."

"Henry got his from a videogame?" asked Takato.

"Yep… it was an experiment I done on all three of you." said the boy "What would happen if a person got a Digimon by finding it in a forbidden area to the public, what would happen if a person got a Digimon by extracting it from a videogame itself… and what would happen if a person got a Digimon as an egg."

"Wait? … You used us for experimenting on like lab rats!?" asked Rika looking even more angry, making Takato scared.

"I had no choice." said the boy "And if it makes you feel any better, you three were part of thirty Tamers. Ten had to find them, ten got them from videogames and ten got them as eggs."

"What did you mean by you had no choice?" asked Rika starting to calm down a little.

"I suppose you deserve to know the truth… after all the other nine Tamers who got Digi-Eggs had similar problems." The boy pushes his glasses back up near his eyes and takes a deep breath. "I am part of an organization who calls themselves Hypnos. For years Hypnos has been destroying Digimon that try to enter the human world by deleting them before they could even get close… but we soon learned that Digimon are much more than just data, they have feelings, they can love and hate… you can say that's where I came in."

"Why?" asked Takato.

"I was the only Tamer who never bothered to hide my Digimon." said the boy "So I was easy to find; and they were impressed at how I was one of very few Tamers who discovered the function in the Digivice to send Digimon back to the Digital World. They requested me to not only send Digimon back to the Digital World, but find new ways on how Tamers should get their Digimon… since the old way was becoming… risky."

"How?" asked Rika.

"How a Tamer got their Digimon was by obtaining a Digivice from the sky, get transported to the Digital World where they will be greeted by their Digimon partner." said the boy "But the Digital World is becoming more and more dangerous and there has been less openings for a Tamer to enter the human world after. So my job was to develop new ways on how a Tamer can get their Digimon without getting into the Digital World."

"And that's where we came in right?" asked Takato.

"Almost, we had plenty more experiments, such as packages with In-Training level Digimon in them, sending the Tamer to Hypnos to pick up their Digimon, heck with it we even held contests to win your real life Digimon. But so far, the ways you got them were the best but not without side-effects." said the boy.

"Like Gargomon going out of control?" asked Takato.

"Terriermon's data was somewhat unstable since he came from a videogame." said the boy "But all Digimon from videogames who Digivolve again, gain control… so the second time Terriermon Digivolves, he won't lose control."

"So what was wrong with me then?" asked Takato.

"Since it was a delivery from the Digital World, Guilmon was a little… confused." said the boy "You may well remember the trouble he caused you in the past such as blowing things up and knocking stuff over."

"Oh yeah. But after a month he got used to it." said Takato.

"Yes. And finally, the way Rika got her Digimon, was actually my personal favourite, because it helps a Tamer bond with their Digimon further by being a parent to them." said the boy.

"But Viximon couldn't Digivolve! And I was almost killed!" said Rika looking annoyed.

"The one you should blame is me, I never told you that she would be too young to Digivolve." said the boy "I was a bit overconfident since according to your files, you were quick to learn."

"Well thanks to your experiment, there's no way I'm going near another Digimon again, I'm not putting my neck on the line just to be the damsel in distress." said Rika.

"That's best then… I understand what you've been put through." said the boy "Give Viximon time before getting into another fight, by then she'll Digivolve."

"You didn't hear me properly!" said Rika "I said I wasn't going near another Digimon again! And I'm definitely lot letting Viximon Digivolve. From now on I'm out of this little Digimon battle you and other Tamers are doing."

"So you're just gonna treat your Digimon like a pet? Y'know, most Tamers around the world treat their Digimon like pets and friends, never used for battles." said the boy "So I cannot stop you from doing what you want to do… and I apologize for not giving you the full details from the beginning."

"Just one more thing… You're a Tamer right? What's your Digimon?" asked Takato.

"Sorry, but that's not relevant to the subject" said the boy.

"Can you at least tell us your name?" asked Takato

"My name isn't relevant to the subject either" said the boy "I'm only suppose to tell you the details of Hypnos's experiments on new Tamers and nothing else. My personal life is not related to this either."

"Well we can't just call you boy or blonde kid." said Takato.

"Yeah, unless you wouldn't mind us calling you stupid nicknames like four eyes or something." said Rika.

"Call me what you want to call me." said the boy "But until we face a moment where my personal life has be said, I see no need to give you my personal details. And by the way…" The boy hands Takato the photo he's been fiddling about with. "I apologise for looking in your stuff Rika, but I couldn't resist seeing how cute you were back then." The boy takes out his Digivice and he disappears in a light of binary.

"That boy is so weird." Rika muttered.

"Wow… you really were cute back then." said Takato. Rika looks at the photo the boy handed Takato, it was a photo of Rika about four years old wearing a blue dress and playing on the swing with the happiest of smiles; next to her was a brown haired boy wearing a black t-shirt and brown trousers, he was also playing on the swings next to her.

Rika began to feel embarrassed again as she quickly snatches the photo off Takato. "Who does that boy think he is looking through my own stuff?"

"I don't think I've ever seen you so happy before." said Takato.

"I… don't really remember this too well." said Rika trying to remember that time but couldn't.

"Do you know who the boy in the photo is?" asked Takato.

"No… I can't remember him at all. I think he's just a kid who snuck into the photograph." said Rika.

"… Oh" Takato's tone of voice felt somewhat disappointing; but Rika just ignored it, she looks at her hand and noticed that it wasn't shivering anymore. "Hey, you stopped shaking."

"I guess the two conversations we had calmed me down." Rika looked at Takato who felt glad, she knew she owes something to him, after he not only saved her, but he also helped her get home when she really needed help. She knew she had to repay Takato somehow, one step at a time. "So… gym's the last lesson for you right?"

"Yeah, I really hate it." said Takato looking disappointed.

"Good… so why not we go to the arcade for a little while? Ditch gym class." said Rika.

"R-Really!? But what about the trauma you were in?" asked Takato sounding surprised, she never asked him to ditch school before.

Rika shown Takato her ever so still hand while giving off a faint smirk. "No longer in it."

"Well… what about Viximon?" asked Takato.

Rika looked back and noticed Viximon still sleeping. So she picks up Viximon and places her in her backpack. "Not a problem."

"And the fact that we're in uniform? Someone will think we're ditching school." said Takato sounding nervous.

Rika continued to smirk at Takato, in a way Takato enjoyed seeing her smile. "Are you just trying to find a way out of this? We can just change."

"Oh… right. Well I see no problems going with you now." said Takato feeling a bit daft now.

"Good, now head home and get changed ok. And relax, I'll take the blame if we get into trouble." said Rika.

"A-Alright… if you say so. See ya later then." Takato then ran off home. Rika felt a bit annoyed now, she's been constantly saying that they're just friends, but the way she just asked Takato out, she felt like they were going somewhere romantic; but she quickly shook those thoughts away.

"_We're just going to the arcade… because we're friends. And to kick his butt in all the games there." _Rika opened her wardrobe and took out her casual clothing readying to get dressed.

The end for now


	5. Run Henry Run

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 5: Run Henry Run**

Its been two weeks since Rika had decided to never fight another Digimon again, or allow Viximon to Digivolve. She's gotten used to just having Viximon as a pet.

Unfortunately its that time of month again where Rika has to model for the kids section in her mother's magazine. We find her this time in a cute long blue dress with elbow long sleeves, this dress was fit for autumn, she never liked anything skirt like but she hardly got a say into it since she's still quite young, but she knew the routine. She just had to let the photographer take a few shots of her standing still and then she could go.

She sat on a bench in the studio keeping Viximon close to her; she was impatiently waiting for her mother to come so she can get this over with. After about three minutes, her mother Rumiko Nonaka arrived with a cheerful smile. "Don't you look precious? Are you ready Rika?"

Rika stood up looking quite annoyed. "Lets just get this over with. The quicker I get these shots in the quicker I can get out of this stupid dress."

"Wait hang on… What's that in your arms?" asked Rumiko.

Rika looked down at Viximon, she remembered she hadn't shown Viximon to her mother yet. She knows she had to keep it a secret. "Uh… it's a toy." she said bluntly.

"You… with a toy?" asked Rumiko sounding as if Rika said something really odd "I haven't seen you with one of those since you were so very young."

"Well… it's more of a collectors item really… Takato gave me it." said Rika _"Oh crap what did I just say?"_ she soon thought

"Really? Oh how sweet of him, I always knew you were sweethearts!" said Rumiko looking cheerful.

Rika began to blush, now even her own mother thinks they're a couple. "M-mom!? We're just friends! And besides, this isn't anything too special, its just something he got me from the cheap shops."

"Well alright, anyway lets get you to the photo-shoot." said Rumiko.

* * *

Later Rika was in front of a white sheet, and in front of her was a scruffy looking cameraman with a grin so big you could fit a coffee mug in it without it getting stuck, she was somewhat familiar with this cameraman seeing him quite a few times, but never knowing his name; she looked towards her mother who was behind the cameraman holding Viximon.

"Ok darling, nice and straight and look directly into the camera." Rika stood straight and looked directly into the camera, within a few seconds the cameraman began taking photos of her, moving the camera in different angles, she even had to move slightly, nothing much, just either turning to the side while still looking into the camera or standing straight with her hands together in front of her.

Rika was used to the flashing lights of the camera, she remembered she even done this when she was about five or six. So all in all even though she doesn't like doing it, she was quite experienced with what poses to make. After a few minutes of camera shooting, the cameraman lifted his camera down looking puzzled.

"What's the matter?" asked Rumiko.

"Don't get me wrong. Your daughter is absolutely beautiful… but something just seems missing…" said the cameraman as he continued to rub his chin.

"Missing? Like what?" asked Rumiko

The cameraman pushed his sunglasses back up before answering. "Hmm… perhaps if she's holding something."

Soon they tried different objects for Rika to hold, first was an umbrella, then a long hat, they then tried a bouquet of flowers, that one looked good until Rika's allergic reaction kicked in and she sneezed the flowers away, last they tried a teddy bear. The cameraman smirked but he still rubbed his chin like he was unsure.

The cameraman let out a faint sigh "The teddy bear seems good but… a little off too… maybe it should be a stuffed animal, but not a bear… something to make the dress and the toy stand out from one another."

There was a strong silence. Rika was slowly getting irritated, it was taking longer than usual, but she knows her complaining will not speed things up so she just kept quiet and looked around for anything that could help move things along.

"I know!" Rumiko walked up to Rika and handed her Viximon, then she moved back looking at the cameraman who now had a convinced smile.

"Perfect! That doll is perfect!" Soon the cameraman took three more pictures until there was a knock at the door.

"Ah… that must be our second model for the group photo." said Rumiko

"Group photo? I wasn't told about this!" said Rika looking annoyed.

"Neither was I." said the cameraman

"Oh I wanted it to be a surprise." said Rumiko.

Rumiko walked off to answer the door, after a few seconds a brown haired boy walked in, he was wearing a red long-sleeved shirt with thin white stripes, he had dark blue trousers and brown plain laceless shoes. The boy walked up to Rika with a cheerful smile, suddenly Rika knew who this boy was once she pictured a pair of yellow goggles on his head. "T-Takato!?"

The boy looked at her confused until he saw Viximon in her hands. "R-Rika!?"

Rumiko then walked back in, just in time for Rika to complain. "The magazine wanted not only a few pictures of my daughter but also a picture of her with a boy wearing a suit suitable for autumn. Something to add a young romance thing into it." said Rumiko

Takato quickly slaps his forehead. "Ah man! I should've known you'd be here since it was your own mother who talked me into this. I can't believe I didn't recognize you again!"

"Same here… I've never actually seen you without your goggles before." Rika soon sighed and turned her head to her mother looking annoyed. "Mom! Why did you bring Takato here too!?"

"I thought you'd be happy to see him, he's the only boy you've ever spoken to ever since the divorce." said Rumiko.

"D-Divorce!?" Takato asked feeling shocked, he literally had no idea Rika's parents had a divorce, Takato looked at Rika who had her head down. Soon the atmosphere of the studio turned from cheerful to rather silent and sad, even the cameraman no longer had his grin, Rumiko started to feel guilty for saying what she said. "R-Rika…?"

"L-Lets just get this stupid photo done so I can get out of this dump!" demanded Rika.

"Of course." said the cameraman, soon Rika and Takato was standing side by side, Rika was still holding Viximon. The cameraman was ready to take the photo until he pulled it down looking as if something wasn't right. "Umm… could you two hold hands?"

The two kids blushed again, but Rika quickly held Takato's hand, Takato looked at Rika seeing her annoyed look, he now knew that she's just doing it to get it over with. As soon as the cameraman took the photo, Rika quickly threw Takato's hand away and walked off back into the changing rooms.

* * *

Later we find Rika and Takato back in their casual clothing and walking back to Rika's neighbourhood to play a game of Digimon cards, Rika looked at Takato seeing his usual concerned face. She knows it has something to do with what her mother said. "You're thinking of asking about what my mom said right?"

"Well… I'm a little curious, but if you're not ready to tell me then I understand." said Takato.

Rika let out an irritated sigh "Oh please. My dad just left my mom when I was about four, its kinda obvious what happened when the word divorce is mentioned."

"I… sorry…" said Takato feeling guilty now "I didn't mean to offend you."

Rika just sighs as she looks at the upset Takato, seeing Takato upset somehow didn't feel right to her, considering he's always cheerful. "Just forget it… I'm over that little sap moment, I hardly knew my father anyway."

Rika just looked ahead ignoring what expression Takato had now. She felt kinda bad for snapping at Takato earlier, but she wasn't going to show emotion that any time soon, she slowly looked at Takato who was looking across the street, he looked distracted. In a way she was kinda relieved, she hated to see Takato upset or disappointed, every time he was upset, it seems to rub off on people making them feel upset too.

Now that Rika thought about it, every time Takato gave off a different type of emotion, Rika somehow felt the same as him, whenever he was cheerful, Rika was normal but she did give out a small smirk at times; whenever Takato was sad, or upset or concerned, she felt as if she had to cheer him up or she'll feel upset. It was kinda the same for any other emotion such as anger, boastful, serious, playful etc. even she's starting to wonder if they're just friends.

"Rika?" Rika looked down to Viximon who looked sad. "I'm hungry."

"Yeah I guess I'm a little hungry too." said Rika.

"Me too" said Takato. Rika looked back at Takato, he had his cheerful smile again which in turn, made Rika feel better.

* * *

Later on the two kids were outside a fast food restaurant, they didn't order much; just a cheeseburger for Takato, a box of French Fries for Viximon and a box of chicken nuggets for Rika. There was quite a silence between the three until Takato broke it with a question Rika might not like. "Hey Rika? By any chance are you going to the school dance?"

"No why? Are you?" asked Rika.

"Nope… I'm just gonna stay home and play on my videogames" said Takato who then chuckled a bit "Who knows, maybe I'll get a second Digimon."

Rika wasn't too amused, but she does get Takato's stupid joke, that was how Henry got his Digimon. "I'm… probably just gonna practice my card techniques, I feel I've been… lacking."

"Lacking!?" asked Takato in shock "Who won the Digimon card tournament three times in a row?"

"That was me… but the thing is four years ago… I was about to make my fifth win" said Rika sounding a bit furious.

"Fifth? Someone shattered your record?" asked Takato, having trouble believing this.

"I lost on the first round, I was against some arrogant boy." said Rika "I haven't seen him in the other three tournaments but I decided as soon as I see is face again, I'm gonna beat him."

"Who was this boy?" asked Takato.

"Hmm… I can't remember his name" said Rika "In fact, I actually can't remember his face."

Takato stared at Rika with a type of look like Rika had just said something stupid. Somewhat ironic in a way for her. "So if you can't remember his face… how do you know you haven't met him already?"

"When I first met him, he gave off some sort of dark aura." said Rika "I'll never forget that!"

"Dark aura… that doesn't sound too human to me" said Takato. Suddenly they heard their Digivices beeping indicating another Digimon has Bio-Emerged. "Well I better go send this next Digimon back to the Digital World… I'll catch you later."

"Yeah I better head home too. C'mon Viximon." Soon Rika and Takato stood up and went into opposite directions, a little later Rika threw the empty box of chicken nuggets and French fries into a nearby bin. She was about to cross a road until she noticed a certain someone.

It was the blue haired boy Henry and in his arms was Terriermon. Rika immediately grew furious, she remembers that it was his Gargomon that almost killed her. "YOU!"

Henry looked and saw Rika walking towards her, Henry began to look scared but trying to pull a smile at the enraged redhead. "Whuh-oh… its that girl." muttered Terriermon.

"Oh… h-hi… umm… so how do you feel?" asked Henry looking almost terrified now.

"Fine no thanks to you! Because of your stupid Gargomon, I was almost bombarded with a thousand bullets!" shouted Rika, Henry began to take a few steps back. "And what did you do afterwards!? You just let Takato carry me off to the nurse's office without even trying to repay back!"

Henry took two more steps back "Well I tried to offer but your boyfriend said he was going to-"

"He's NOT my boyfriend!" said Rika.

Henry began to take a few more steps back knowing Rika just might throw a few punches in his direction.

"I don't know where you got that idea! But frankly I don't care!" said Rika "You almost killed me and your gonna pay!"

"YIKES!" Henry shouted in a high pitched tone and quickly turned around and ran from Rika, soon she began to chase after him. Rika began to chase after Henry across the town, jumping fences and dodging lampposts, she was holding onto Viximon tightly but she began to feel a bit queasy.

"I'm gonna ram my fist so far down your throat I'll be able to rip out your lungs!" shouted Rika. Henry began to run faster, they not long entered the park. Henry was slowly starting to get away, Rika soon began to run faster but she was starting to run out of breath, but she was really determined to get her own back on the boy for traumatizing her.

Suddenly a large circular fog surrounded an area which Henry ran into. Rika suddenly stopped realising that Henry had entered a Digital Zone; Rika could've entered the zone just to hurt Henry, but her near death experience began rushing back to her, about how Monodramon tried to attack her and Gargomon's misfire. Rika actually began to shiver once more. Rika quickly ran from the Digital Zone screaming.

* * *

She arrived outside the park and near her neighbourhood where she just leaned her back against a wall catching her breath. "Are you ok Rika?" asked Viximon looking concerned.

"Yeah…. I … think so…" said Rika as she gasped for breath. She slowly got up and looked at her hand, she was no longer shivering, she was relieved but she still felt scared of that moment. "… Lets just go home."

Rika went around the corner to enter her neighbourhood. Later she was resting on her bench in her back garden, she felt a little tired, then again she felt like she ran for about what felt like an hour chasing Henry. She was almost about to fall asleep until she heard her back gate open revealing Takato.

"Oh hey Tak- AAGH!" Rika was shocked to see that Takato had a black eye, he was still smiling, but that was probably because the expression Rika made humoured him. Takato just sat next to Rika with his cheerful smile as if he didn't have a black eye at all.

"You're thinking of asking about this black eye right?" asked Takato.

"Well… I'm a little curious, but if your not ready to tell me then I understand." said Rika.

Takato just chuckled, Rika realised that they had a similar scene just after the photo shoot. "That Digimon was an Apemon, he gave me and Growlmon quite the sucker punch."

"Does it hurt?" asked Rika sounding concerned.

"A little, but I'll be fine." said Takato.

"Ok…" soon Rika realised what Takato said earlier "Wait did you say Growlmon?"

"Yep! Guilmon Digivolved!" chuckled Takato.

"Well… congratulations I guess." said Rika letting out a small smirk.

"Thanks. So are you ready for our card game?" asked Takato.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." said Rika. After that, Rika and Takato walked into Rika's room to play their game.

The end for now.


	6. Shifting Blames

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 6: Shifting Blames**

It was only twenty days until the school dance; not that this affected Rika in anyway possible. But still, questions of 'who's going with who' was the most popular question for the past week, Rika could hear that question ever so clearly from every student, she was even given that question from time to time, but she just gave the same answer with the same annoyed tone 'I'm not going, the school dance is just stupid.'

It was the beginning of lunch time and Rika was putting her books back into her locker; not long later Takato walked up to her, she noticed that Takato's black eye had cleared up so much its barely noticeable. "Hey Rika."

"Hey Takato, how does your black eye feel now?" asked Rika.

"Much better, I can see perfectly again." Soon his black eye twitched slightly, it somewhat hinted Rika that Takato cannot see 100% but he can still see fine.

"Hey Pineapple Head!" Rika knew that voice and she quickly grew furious. She looked behind her and noticed a certain girl wearing red framed glasses and had medium size blonde hair; this girl was known as Jessica Valentine, the most arrogant girl in the school, most people call her Jess; next to her was Kazu and Kenta and in Jessica's hand was Rumiko Nonaka's magazine.

"What do you want Jess?" asked Rika.

"Oh nothing… I was just reading your mother's magazine and I found this." Jessica shown Rika and Takato a page where it shown their group photo. Rika knew one thing, Jessica was going to start making fun of her, and she was right. "And you told everyone that you two aren't a couple."

"Jess is right, if you two aren't a couple… then why are you two in a photo holding hands and such?" asked Kazu looking amused.

"It wasn't anything special, it was just for her mom's magazine. I didn't know I was gonna be with Rika for a group photo." said Takato.

"Ha! A likely story." chuckled Jessica "But then again… I'm glad you two aren't a couple, then that means Takato is available."

Takato began to blush; Rika knew she had to get her away from Takato, after all, she's nothing but bad news. "And just what makes you think he's into you?"

"I knew it. Takato's gonna let his little princess do the talking." said Jessica.

"Well… I-I'm not into arrogant girls like you." said Takato feeling nervous.

"Ha! Your only saying that because Rika started you off." said Jessica.

"In a way Takato, she's right… Rika has normally been the one to start your conversations." soon Kazu began to chuckle even more "I smell love in the air!"

"Uhh Kazu, maybe we should drop this now." said Kenta sensing Rika's anger.

"Admit it you two, you're in love with each other!" said Jessica.

"No we're not!" said Rika and Takato at the same time, they both looked at one another.

"Ooooo…. They said it at the same time!" said Kazu.

"Rika and Takato sitting in a tree!" sand Jessica.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" sand Kazu.

Rika grew more and more furious, her eye was even twitching, not noticing Takato waving his arms in a panic begging them to stop.

"First comes love!" sang Jessica.

"Then comes marriage!" sand Kazu.

"Then comes Takato with a baby carriage!" sang Jessica.

"Shut up! Shut UP!" growled Rika furiously, she was literally on the verge of attacking them.

"Oh and one more thing" said Jessica "Lets hope you two don't have a divorce like a certain father."

Rika's nerves broke and everything went black as her blind rage took over. Takato immediately jumped back "OH SHI-"

* * *

Rika was now gasping for breath feeling like she had run a marathon, she slowly opened her eyes and to her shock, Jessica and Kazu were on the ground; their noses were bleeding, their faces were bruised and they had black eyes, even Jess's glasses were shattered and she had quite a few glass cuts around her eyes. She looked at her hands and noticed that they had blood stains, she looks behind her and noticed Takato was now covering his eye where it didn't have the black eye and held onto the lockers for balance. She also noticed that the hallway was empty; Rika was almost afraid to ask.

"Uhh… Takato…? What just happened?" asked Rika sounding confused.

"You… beat up Jessica and Kazu… so Kenta and the other kids ran off so they wouldn't get hurt…" said Takato "Ow my friggin face." he muttered.

"And… why are you holding your other eye?" asked Rika.

"Well it was my fault really… Takato moved his hand away and to her shock, he had another black eye. Rika began to feel guilty. "I tried to stop you and you punched me."

"B-But... how was that your fault!?" asked Rika.

"I should've known not to stop you when your mad… don't worry, I'll be fine." said Takato.

"I…" Rika just elts out a sigh feeling tired "Lets just go"

"But what about Kazu?" asked Takato sounding worried.

"What about him!?" asked Rika looking angry once more. "He joined in so he got what he deserved!"

Takato looked down at Kazu as Rika began to walk off "Sorry Kazu… and I hope Kenta's ok?"

Rika and Takato began to walk off to the cafeteria. Rika did feel relieved that she got that off her chest, but she couldn't help but think this was going to come back to haunt her. And she couldn't be more right.

* * *

After school; Rika was in the room just outside the principle's office, next to her was her mother for a parent teacher conference. Her mother's look was stress and disappointment, she just looks at Rika.

"So… you beat up two students?" asked Rumiko looking quite angry.

"They were constantly making fun of me!" said Rika crossing her arms. "And one of them mocked about that dad left us!"

"Now… how did that student know about the divorce?" asked Rumiko sounding surprised.

Rika began to think for a moment. Suddenly that question's answer soon came to clear. _"… Takato!" _she thought.

Later the principle opened the door where he greeted Rika's mother. "You must be Rika's mother. Rumiko correct?"

"Yes I am." said Rumiko as she stood up.

"Good… now I believe we have much to discuss. Rika should wait here." said the principle.

"Of course" The principle and Rumiko walked into the principles office leaving Rika alone.

Rika began to think to herself _"Takato you goggle head! Did you seriously tell Jess about the divorce!? I swear to god if that's true, I'll make sure you suffer a slow and painful punishment!"_

* * *

Later on Rika was walking home with her mother, she wasn't in too much trouble since her mother explained how Jess made fun of her divorce. But she still got a detention for tomorrow and the next two days, luckily no one knows that Rika had hurt Takato as well, as they made it near Takato's neighbourhood; Rika slowly stopped. "Is it alright if I go to Takato's house for a while?"

"Well…" Rumiko looked as if she was about to refuse, but she sighs and faces her properly "Alright… but control yourself this time ok. And come home earlier ok?"

"Ok." Rika walked off into Takato's neighbourhood leaving her mother to walk to her house.

Later on we find Rika and Takato playing Digimon cards in Takato's room, it didn't take long for Rika to win… again. "Um… Takato?"

"Yeah?"

Rika let out another sigh "I'm sorry I punched you."

"Its ok, it was my fault for trying to stop you" said Takato, Rika felt as if she should protest, but felt too shy to do so, so she kept quiet "How much trouble are you in?"

"Not much actually… I was almost let off the hook since my mother mentioned about Jess making fun of my parents divorce." Rika soon glared Takato which made him nervous. "So **how** did Jess know about my parents divorce? Hmm?"

"Hey I never told her or anyone else! I knew it was personal to you so I kept my mouth shut about it!" said Takato still feeling nervous.

"So how did Jess know then?" asked Rika calming down.

"Umm… actually I think she was directing that to me." said Takato.

"You!?" asked Rika feeling surprised. "But I've seen your dad many times."

"Umm… you've seen my step-dad many times." said Takato.

"Y-Your parents had a divorce too!?" asked Rika feeling even more shocked.

"Yeah… it was kinda awkward actually." said Takato rubbing the back of his head "My dad was caught cheating on my mom for the cake saleswoman across the street, my mom didn't take it so well since the saleswoman was my mom's old school rival."

"Hmm… kinda sounds like me and Jess actually." said Rika.

"Yeah I guess…" said Takato. After a few seconds Rika and Takato began to blush realising what Rika had just said might have implied her and Takato being a couple. "E-Even we're having trouble saying we're just friends."

"M-Me and my big mouth." Rika knew she had to change the subject somehow before this gets too out of hand. "How's Kazu?" asked Rika.

"Pretty mad… well on the bright side, since you punched me, not many people are gonna think there's anything between us." said Takato.

"I guess" said Rika "Who'd thought hurting you would be helping us?"

"Yeah… and Jess is gonna have a lot of trouble winning the next school beauty award since you performed plastic surgery on her face using nothing but your fists and your head." chuckled Takato.

Rika let out a faint chuckle, surprising Takato. "Yeah… wait, I head-butted her too?"

"Six times, you even kicked Kazu in the area no guy likes to get hit in." said Takato.

"Wow…" Rika let out another sigh "I guess I should apologize to Kazu… after all he was just joining along with Jess, its not like he really meant it, plus he didn't bring up the divorce."

"I think you should" said Takato "But at the same time he knows of your short temper… I'll see if I can get him to apologize for making fun of you first."

"What about Jess?" asked Rika

"Asking her to apologize to you would be like asking you to wear a chicken suit" said Takato, Rika gave off a slight flinch at what Takato said "But I'm sure she won't be making fun of you anytime soon. I suggest leaving her out."

"I guess you're right. Thanks." said Rika.

"Anytime." said Takato.

* * *

The next day at lunchtime, Rika was waiting near her locker for Takato. She then began to hear bickering as they walked towards her it was no doubt Takato and Kazu, she took a deep breath and was getting ready to apologize to Kazu. Right after Kazu apologizes first.

"I don't see why I should apologize to her!" said Kazu "After all she was the one who planted her fists in my face and made me wear this protective cup!"

"You know how much she hates it when people constantly talk about me and Rika being a couple when we're not. I don't know how many times Rika and I said to every other student that we're just friends." said Takato.

"You know your just denying the truth!" said Kazu "Why else would you hang out with her and why else would she act so open hearted to you and not the rest of us?"

"We had this conversation before." said Takato "You and Kenta hang out with Jeri and she so open hearted to both of you as you are to her. There's no difference."

Takato and Kazu arrived at Rika's locker where she awaits Kazu's apology. Of course she knew she wasn't going to get it easy, so she had a back-up plan; Rika looked at the amount of small bandages, bruises and black eyes Kazu had; even she was impressed at how much pain she inflicted on Kazu.

"Ok Kazu… Rika's agreed to apologize for hurting you after you apologize to her for making fun of her." said Takato.

"I still don't see why I should apologize to her, after all she's the Ice Queen of the school!" said Kazu "She's not gonna apologize!"

"She will! She said to me that she will! But just you… not Jess since she deserved that!" said Takato sounding a bit more annoyed.

"Well I can understand that… but still, I want proof that she's gonna apologize after I do! How do I know she's not just gonna walk off like she always does like the cruel hearted Ice Queen she is!?" asked Kazu.

"Shut it Kazu!" said Rika as she faced the two properly.

Kazu and Takato look at Rika who was holding a Digimon card, she quickly throws it to Kazu. Kazu looks at the card and became shocked. "A… a HiAndromon limited edition card!? These are almost impossible to find!"

"Kazu…" Kazu and Takato both look at Rika with their surprised confused looks. "I'm sorry for hurting you so badly… please accept my only limited edition HiAndromon card as a token of my apology."

Suddenly Rika walked off without even hearing Kazu's apology. This left both Takato and Kazu in shock." Wh… what the hell just happened!?" asked Takato.

"I… I don't know!" Takato then ran off to find Rika leaving Kazu still in his state of shock.

* * *

Later Rika was back on the grassy fields watching the view again; it wasn't long later until Takato ran towards her and sat down next to her, he still had a confused look. "That was incredibly kind of you…" said Takato still looking surprised "But… why didn't you wait for Kazu to apologize?"

"I knew you'd ask that question… I knew I wasn't going to get an apology from Kazu so I decided to make sure he would at least know I'm not that cold." said Rika.

"But… heh… I guess your just warming up really aren't you?" asked Takato.

"I guess… besides, when I thought about it… Kazu was just joining along to Jess so he didn't really deserve it… too much…" Takato was silent he wasn't sure what to say, Rika didn't know how to continue that conversation either, she knew one thing however, Takato's kindness was starting to bring out her kinder side, a side of her she thought she had abandoned long ago. Rika then faced Takato once more to say her other reason " I didn't really give him it just to be nice… I just wanted to see the look on his face when he saw the 'cruel hearted Ice Queen' do a generous deed without anything in return… and his face was priceless."

Takato was silent for a minute until he began chuckling. "I knew it! And I guess my look was just as priceless!"

"Heh… you couldn't be more right."

Suddenly Takato's Digivice began to beep. They quickly stood up as Takato took out his Digivice. "Oh man! Another Digimon… wait… where's the arrow? Normally the arrow disappears when…" Takato grew silent, he then looked at Rika horrified. "RIKA GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Huh!? W-why!?" asking Rika feeling worried now.

Suddenly the area around them grew foggy. The Digital Zone appeared on top of them, Rika suddenly grew scared as the events of Monodramon, Gargomon and DexDorugamon entered her mind. Rika immediately ran away from the Digital Zone. But she bumped into something, it was large and blue, she slowly looked up, the large blue thing was the leg of a large blue dinosaur like Digimon. It looked down at her looking as if it was about to eat her; Rika screamed as she ran from the Digimon and right back to Takato.

"Wh-what is that!?" asked Rika feeling scared.

Takato check his Digivice. "Allomon! Champion level! What a perfect time for me to not have Guilmon!"

Suddenly Allomon threw its head down to attack Takato and Rika but they quickly jumped out of the way; suddenly Rika felt something move in her backpack. She quickly takes it off and opens it up, to her shock, Viximon stuck out of the bag." Viximon!? You're suppose to be home!"

"I wanted to come along in case you needed me to fight Digimon." said Viximon "I think I can Digivolve just fine now."

"But I didn't bring my Digivice!" said Rika.

Viximon grew silent "… Uh-oh"

"RIKA WATCH OUT!" shouted Takato. Rika and Viximon look up and saw that Allomon was about to strike Rika again. The two screamed as Allomon grew closer; Rika closed her eyes in shock.

But suddenly, she heard a loud thud; she slowly opened her eyes, to her shock she saw the blonde boy from before as he jumped up and struck Allomon with a large metal pole sending him to the ground. "Woah! You clobbered that Digimon down like he was nothing!" said Rika.

"I'm not suppose to bring my Digimon unless its an emergency, so I trained myself to fight Digimon." said the boy after he spun the pole around and placed it behind him.

"Emergencies!?" asked Rika "Well this seems like one doesn't it!?"

"Not really." The boy quickly threw something into Rika's hand without her even reacting; she looked at it and noticed it was her Digivice. "Whether you plan to keep your Digimon as a pet or warrior or whatever… you still need to keep your Digivice in the off chance of a Digimon Bio-Emerging right in front of you!"

"Well next time warn me about this stuff!" said Rika as she stood up with Viximon in her arms.

"Whatever. Now that is has been several days, Viximon should be able to Digivolve without any problems." said the boy as he threw the metal pole away.

Allomon quickly tried to attack the boy but he quickly dodged by jumping about seven feet high and ten feet back. Suddenly Rika's Digivice began to glow as Viximon was encased in a blue digitized egg.

"Viximon Digivolve to… Renamon!"

The egg exploded in a shockwave revealing Renamon; she quickly gathered up crystal shards from nowhere.

"Diamond Storm!" Renamon shot thousands of crystals at Allomon sending it slightly back, but it quickly moved forward and tried to attack Renamon but she quickly dodged.

"Gargo Laser!" Suddenly a barrage of bullets came from outside the Digital Zone which blasted Allomon back even further, everyone looks and noticed Henry and Gargomon who had just entered the Digital Zone. Rika grew slightly scared remembering what happened when Gargomon grew out of control, Henry freaked out when he saw Rika but he quickly went calm.

"Rika… I'm sorry Gargomon almost killed you! I'll make it up to you I promise!" said Henry sounding a bit panicked, almost as if he was more scared of Rika than the Allomon.

"Just blast that Digimon!" said the boy.

"Ah! S-sure Thomas!" Henry and Gargomon ran off to fight Allomon, during Renamon and Gargomon's battle against Allomon, Rika looked at the boy with a surprised look.

"… So… your name is Thomas?" asked Rika.

"Yeah, surprised?" asked the boy supposedly named Thomas.

"Only that I thought you'd have some sort of cool mysterious name since you seem to act it." said Rika.

"So you think I'm cool huh?" asked Thomas with a faint smirk.

Rika blushed slightly but she soon shakes it off. "So where's your Digimon?"

Just as Thomas was about to answer, there was a sudden explosion. They both looked and noticed that Renamon and Gargomon have been blasted away by one of Allomon's fire attacked; Renamon and Gargomon got up slowly.

"Man he's tough!" grunted Renamon

"I think he's becoming bullet proof" said Gargomon.

"No… your just getting weaker" said Thomas. Suddenly Gargomon Degenerated back into Terriermon right at the moment Thomas finished speaking. "See?"

"Crud!" muttered Terriermon

"I'll handle this!" Renamon quickly jumped to the side of Allomon as it prepared another fireball attack. Just as Allomon fired it towards Renamon, she quickly pulled some unusual pose.

"Kohenkyo!" Suddenly Renamon and Allomon disappeared in a cloud of smoke, then they appeared in a cloud of smoke, but this time they swapped places and Allomon was blasted by its own fireball and it fell unconscious. Rika slowly walked up to it and pointed her Digivice towards Allomon and it disappeared in a light of binary, the fog around them began to disappear.

"Glad that's over… right Renamon?" Rika looks towards Renamon and notices she was gone, then she looks down and notices Viximon.

"Rika… I'm hungry." groaned Viximon.

"That was the Kohenkyo attack right?" asked Thomas feeling surprised "That's a pretty rare attack for a Renamon to know."

"Really?" asked Rika as she picked up Viximon.

"Yeah, only 20% of its species can learn it… consider yourself lucky." said Thomas.

She looked down at Viximon in her arms and let out a small smirk "So as I said before… where is your Digimon?"

"Back home… I don't need him around when I'm training newbies like you." said Thomas. "By the way… your surname… its Nonaka right?"

"Yeah? So?" asked Rika.

"That surname belongs to your father correct?" asked Thomas.

"Well… yeah" said Rika.

"Interesting info… one last question… is your father's name Jiro Nonaka?" asked Thomas.

"Huh!? T-that's right! How did you know!?" asked Rika sounding surprised.

"Eight years ago he left you and your mother without word or warning. Am I correct?" asked Thomas.

"No, he and my mother got divorced, you can ask her the same and she'll say the same! It was my mother who divorced him!" said Rika.

"Is that all you know?" asked Thomas.

Rika raised an eyebrow "A-Are you saying there's more to Rika's father leaving?" asked Takato.

"How do you know so much about Rika's father? What happened?" asked Henry.

"To tell you the truth… I barely know much of this myself." said Thomas. "All I know is that he left eight years ago, wasn't seen since. So far my theory is that he left the country and remarried… but I could be wrong."

"Why is someone from Hypnos looking for information on one individual's father." asked Takato.

"Oh… didn't you know… Jiro Nonaka was a member of Hypnos until he became a father to the little redhead over there." said Thomas.

"My father was a member of Hypnos!? That means he must know about Digimon correct?" asked Rika. Thomas nodded. "Wait! If he was a member of Hypnos… why didn't he ever tell me that Digimon exist? … he knew I was into it so much."

"For now… that's all the info I had." said Thomas "All I know is that he was once a member of Hypnos before I was, he quitted the team to parent you and he left when you were about four. But three questions come to mind… where did he go? Why did he quit Hypnos when he could still take care of you while doing his job? And finally… is it possible that he remarried?"

"Why are you so concerned?" asked Henry.

"Jiro Nonaka… he was… one of a kind… at least that's what my boss told me." said Thomas "Ever since then I've been trying to solve this puzzle too… but now… I must go."

"Where?" asked Takato.

"Back to Hypnos of course." said Thomas "To be honest… I wasn't suppose to be here… or tell you this important information since I'm forbidden to bring it up or even research it myself."

"So why did you?" asked Rika.

"I knew it was best if I told you, after all he is your father. And don't worry, anything vital I find, I'll let you know first." said Thomas.

After that, Thomas disappeared in a light of binary. This left Rika very confused, for some strange reason her father's divorce seemed to have a dark mystery behind it; could her father really have remarried someone… and now that she thought about it, she's never seen her father ever since the divorce, its as if he just disappeared. Rika knew one thing… she must find out the truth.

"Hey where did that stop sign come from?" asked Takato pointing at the stop sign on the ground where Thomas was, it turns out the metal pole he used was in fact a stop sign.

"Guess he used that to fight the Allomon?" asked Henry.

"As in he literally just yanked it out of the ground?" asked Rika. "Well hopefully this doesn't cause any problems."

The sound of tyres screeching and a loud crash suddenly occurred not far from the school, the kids and their Digimon immediately looked over to where the sound was, then back to the stop sign, then they all immediately ran away hoping to not get into any trouble.

The end for now.


	7. From Cold to Warm

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 7: From Cold to Warm**

Rika was left in a state of confusion five days ago. She was told by the mysterious boy known as Thomas that her parent's divorce had more of a back-story than anyone thought. Her father disappeared the same day as the divorce and he hasn't been seen since; is it possible he remarried? If so, its possible that Rika may have a half-sibling. But she knew one thing, her mother will know, and today was perfect anyway.

It was a new month, so it was time again for Rika to put on a dress and do a few poses for the next magazine. She was wearing what seemed to be a dark blue dress suitable for the ball, she was a little confused really; she normally wore dresses suitable for going out in different types of weather outside, unless it was one of those outdoor dances.

Suddenly it came to her. The school dance, it was only two weeks away; the principle must've told her mother about it, so no doubt Takato might arrive too to make it a dance photo; she just hopes this doesn't give people the wrong idea like last time. It wasn't long later when Rika's mother walked in with a cheerful smile; she noticed Rika holding Viximon once more. "Well Rika, are you ready?" asked Rumiko

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the school dance would it?" asked Rika.

"Why yes? The principle asked me to make an advertisement poster for the school, so you just need to do one photo with Takato." said Rumiko.

"You do know that this will give people the wrong idea… me and Takato are just friends." said Rika in an annoyed tone.

"And you'll be dancing like friends… which is why I made that dress specially for you." said Rumiko looking pleased with herself.

"Oh right" Rika looked at her dress from the sides, but then it occurred to her "Wait hang on!? What did you mean we'll be dancing like friends!? Will we have to dance in front of the camera!?"

"Oh no… the principle said that your punishment was for you to go to the school dance." said Rumiko.

"WHAT!?" asked Rika in shock "But I thought I just had detention!?"

"That was **one** of your punishments. Now your facing your second punishment, the principle said that the school dance might help you with your anger management problems." said Rumiko looking a little upset now.

"This can't be happening!" muttered Rika holding her head with one hand.

"Well I'm sorry, it is, and you've got no say in it." said Rumiko. Rika sighed in an irritated tone as the two walked off to the photo-shoot room. She couldn't believe what was happening to her, she was forced to go to the dance for beating up Jessica and Kazu six days ago. Not only was she really annoyed, but she hoped that Takato actually comes too, that way she doesn't have to face the music alone.

Rika was standing in front of the white sheet again; this time they weren't going to take the photograph until Takato arrives; although she was completely irritated that she was forced to go to the dance, that wasn't too important to her, what was important to her was her father. "Hey mom?"

"Yes sweetheart?" said Rumiko.

"It's about dad actually." said Rika, Rumiko actually became surprised by this "Do you know where he is now?"

"W-Why would you even think that now all of a sudden?" asked Rumiko.

"I… was told that your divorce had more to it." said Rika.

"Now even you should know not to listen to other's stories that aren't true." said Rumiko.

"I know, but this seems true, after all I've never seen dad since and he did mean a lot to me." said Rika.

"W-Well I certainly haven't seen him." Rumiko looked as if she was getting annoyed with Rika's questions, but she didn't intend to stop until she knew the truth.

"Are you sure?" asked Rika, she noticed Rumiko looked even more irritated, but she wanted the info regardless "It just seems unbelievable that no one has seen him since the divorce, I thought he'd come and visit me as well and-"

"Rika Nonaka! STOP IT!" she shouted, her mother's tone shocked Rika, not only was it unexpected, but it wasn't like her mother at all to just snap like that. "I've had enough of talking about that pig Jiro! I divorced him because he started our relationship on a lie!"

"W-What-"

"He smokes! He drinks! And he certainly didn't like you!" shouted Rumiko looking furious "The only reason he ever took you out for fun was because I hid his cigarettes and told him to spend time with you or he won't get them back! So personally, I don't even give a damn where he is! In fact I hope he's living a miserable life! Or even dead! Now I do not want you to talk about him ever again! GOT IT!? And one more word about him and I'll never let you see Takato ever again!"

Rika felt like a knife had stabbed her deep; she just tipped her head down upset. In fact she almost felt like crying, she just couldn't believe that her father was really a horrible man; especially since her only memories of him were playing in the park with him, he had a very cheerful smile and he always made Rika smile and laugh… and even sing. But what made it worse was Rumiko's harsh tone and even threatening her to never see Takato again, her only friend.

Not long later Takato himself entered the room wearing a smart red tuxedo, he too looked a little disappointed, no doubt its because he has to take Rika to the dance and he already made plans to stay home. "Ok I'm here."

"Good… now lets just get this photo over with!" said Rumiko, still sounding angry, but trying to alm down.

"Huh?" Takato noticed Rika's upset look, they both then looked at the cameraman who also heard their little conversation, so he no longer had his giant grin.

"Uh… ok you two… can you get into like a dancing pose." asked the Cameraman.

Rika and Takato slowly get into a cute dancing pose (you decided what it looks like). And just as the cameraman took the photo, Rumiko handed Rika Viximon. "There! You can go now!" Rika just slowly walks off leaving a confused and concerned Takato.

* * *

Later Rika and Takato were walking home in their casual clothing. Rika was silent, very silent, in fact this was silent even for her, she looks to her left and noticed Takato looking concerned. But he wasn't saying anything; it was as if he was afraid to say anything, he then just looked away, Rika felt she should say something, she hated it when Takato was upset, but at the same time, she was afraid to talk, in case she just breaks down into tears, her mothers words had really stung her.

Suddenly she felt something across her right shoulder, she looked to her right and noticed a hand, she looked to her left and noticed that Takato had his hand over her shoulder for comfort. His upset look soon turned into a smile, but she knew it was forced just to make her feel better.

"W-What are you doing?" asked Rika almost losing all her sad thoughts since she was distracted by something she considered dumb.

"I-I know something's troubling you. I just hate to see you upset." said Takato sounding nervous.

"Its… its nothing… honest." said Rika, really not wanting to talk about it.

"… Well… once your ready to tell me… I'm all ears." said Takato.

Rika couldn't help but let out a faint smile, Takato was always someone she could trust, and he's always been good at listening to her problems and trying his best to understand. "… umm… could you please take your hand of me?"

"Oh! Sorry." Takato quickly moves his hand off Rika's shoulder, it was somewhat comforting but it was embarrassing as well, also if anyone saw that, people would think they're a couple. She looked down seeing Viximon looking up at her concerned, but soon Rika faces forward again.

* * *

Later Rika was sitting on her bench in her back garden waiting for Takato to return from sending another Digimon back to the Digital World, Viximon was also asleep on Rika's bed, she still couldn't believe what her mother said, about her father being a horrible man. She can still remember the times when her and her father played in the park; then again, that's all she remembers about him, she can't remember his face at all. And if that wasn't enough, hearing her mother yell at her for something she didn't know felt very painful. _"Was dad playing with me… really just so he can smoke?"_

Rika tried to remember anything else that might contradict what her mother said, but all she can remember was her time in the park with her father, nothing else. It was as if her subconscious was trying to erase him from her mind.

Rika felt even more upset now; not only could she remember anything about her father or what he looks like, but her mother told her that she was a horrible man. Now she couldn't even get those thoughts out of her mind.

Later Takato arrived and sat next to her, he looked cheerful until he noticed that Rika was still upset, then in turn he was upset. "Uhh… is this a bad time?"

"N-No… I guess I'm just a little tired is all… how's Guilmon?" asked Rika, trying to sound like herself but was having trouble.

"H-He's… he's ok, that fight was a little too easy." said Takato, seeing her looking upset made it difficult for Takato to sound his cheery self.

"I see… how's Kazu with his new Digimon card?" asked Rika.

"He's like he just won the lottery." said Takato with a faint chuckle "That HiAndromon card you gave him has became his main card."

"Good… I'm glad he likes it." said Rika with a small smile trying to cheer herself up. Rika grew silent once more, there was an awkward silence for about two minutes until Takato broke it.

"So… that was a nice blue dress you were wearing earlier today." said Takato.

The word 'dress' reminded Rika of her mother, and that began to stir some anger in her "T-Thanks… I guess… mom made it for the school dance."

"I… I know… yesterday the principle told me to take you to the dance, since there's no one else who doesn't have a date." said Takato.

"So… you'll be wearing that red tuxedo?" asked Rika, she wanted to avoid anything relating to her mother but at the same time, she didn't want to hint Takato of what happened.

"Yeah… your mom did put a lot of effort into making it." said Takato "Guess he wanted like a red and blue colouration between us or something."

"Hmph…I think I'll wear a different dress." said Rika, her idea was that she didn't want anything to do with her mother.

"Huh? But didn't your mother make you that blue dress too?" asked Takato sounding confused.

"Yeah… I hate it… so I'll be wearing something else." Rika started to grow very sick of her mother being brought up, but didn't want to say it to Takato directly in case it upsets him too.

"Well… I'm not to fond of the red tuxedo to be perfectly honest." said Takato. "But I figured I should wear it anyway because she's put a lot of effort into it."

"If you don't like it, don't wear it." said Rika sounding more and more irritated.

Takato began to rub the back of his head "But… I'm only being polite to her since she was nice enough to-"

The word 'nice' made Rika suddenly stand up and face Takato looking as if she was about to scream. "NICE?! SHE **YELLED **AT ME!"

"Eh what!?" Takato shuffled to the edge of the bench flinching, but he then slowly stood up to properly face Rika, as well as keep a short distance. "W-What ha-"

"I asked about my father to her and she went ballistic at me!" shouted Rika, almost becoming red in the face with rage "I don't know a thing about my father and she just goes ahead and shouts at me as if I offended her or something! You must've seen my mother's dark tone when you entered that room you freaking idiot!"

"C-Calm down… I'm sorry!" said Takato feeling panicked himself, Rika was typically scary but this is beyond anything he has ever seen "I didn't mean to upset you."

"No I won't calm down!" Rika shouted "My mother yelled at me for asking something I would've never known about! I'll never forgive her for that so SHUT UP!" Rika actually began to shed tears, but she looked as if she was trying to hold them back, this shocked Takato big time, this was the first time he had ever seen her cry.

"R-Rika!? C-c'mon Rika don't cry, its not like you at all." said Takato trying his best to calm down to try and comfort her.

Rika quickly turned her head away covering her eyes with her hand. "I-I'm not crying! I-I just have something in my eyes!"

"… Rika… don't worry… I'm here for you." said Takato getting closer to her.

Rika soon turned back to Takato, she moved her hand away showing she's still shedding tears. Takato leaned back again but stepped closer once more "And just what can you do to make me feel better you g-goggle head!"

"The only thing I can do… don't get this the wrong way but…" Suddenly Takato moved closer to Rika and moved his arms around her back just under her arms and began to hug her. Rika was shocked and blushing at the same time.

"W-What are you d-doing!?" asked Rika starting to lose all of her anger almost instantly.

"They say a hug helps anyone who is upset." said Takato.

Rika was just silent, she could just ask to let go, but this hug was too comforting. She felt she really needed this, so she moved her arms around Takato and hugged back, starting to feel much better as a small smile crept onto her face. "… T-Thank you. And I'm sorry I yelled at you…"

"Its ok. I understand." said Takato. After about two minutes of silence between them, they slowly let go of each other. Rika had stopped crying but her face was still quite damp from the tears; Rika then grew a little embarrassed, but somewhat upset that their hug stopped, she couldn't understand why, but being in Takato's arms made her feel completely safe and comforting.

"I'm glad no one saw that." said Rika looking around, she had completely calmed down.

"There's nothing wrong with friends hugging. I did the same to Kenta when he lost his pet cat." said Takato.

"I know… but I meant saw me crying… I feel so weak!" said Rika sounding upset.

"Crying doesn't make you weak…" said Takato making Rika looked at him confused "It makes you human. And I know deep down you were never so cold, it was only a matter of time before I proved myself that."

"My father… I loved him so much. The only memories I can remember of him were playing in the park with him, smiling, laughing, even singing… I guess I became so cold and emotionless, was because I was so upset when he left… I became cold to protect myself, I didn't want to get so close to another person, in case he or she would leave me too, I was just so scared!" Rika looked as if she was going to cry again, Takato did seem surprised at this, but then he just smiled.

"But you became friends with me…" said Takato placing both his hands on her shoulders.

"We weren't in the past, you were just a rookie who wanted to be better at cards. I pitied you so I agreed to train you, I never expected us to become friends." said Rika.

"Heh… well there's going to be a difference between me and your father…" said Takato.

"What?" asked Rika.

"I'm not going to leave you, I promise that. Now that I know why you became so cold."

Rika grew surprised at what Takato had said, almost feeling a loud heartbeat, she simply smiled at him. "… Thanks"

"No problem" said Takato moving his arms off Rika's shoulders "So… why not we play a game of cards, I bet I can beat you this time."

"In your dreams." Rika and Takato then walked into Rika's room to play cards. They both walked past Viximon who had one eye opened, she heard everything they had said, feeling glad they both felt better, she snuggled back to sleep.

The end for now.

_Now that was adorable wasn't it? Rika does have her soft side. BUT, that was only a sign of friendship… maybe. By the way. About Takato getting his first black eye… are you curious how he REALLY got it?_

* * *

**Epilogue**

Takato and Guilmon had just entered a Digital Zone where they saw a big yellow ape like Digimon, Takato took out his Digivice. "Apemon! Champion level! Get ready Guilmon!"

"Got it!" grunted Guilmon. Apemon quickly tried to punch Guilmon but he dodged. "Pyro Sphere!" Guilmon shot a fireball from its mouth blasting Apemon slightly back, Guilmon fired another but Apemon knocked it away. Apemon began to rapidly punch Guilmon but he kept dodging; then Guilmon jumped up onto its arm and ran up it until he was right at Apemon's head and bit his nose.

Apemon screamed and shook around trying to get Guilmon off, but he still held on like some deranged looking nose ring. Apemon was about to punch Guilmon until he dropped off causing Apemon to punch himself in the face; Takato began laughing until he looked at Guilmon who looked disgusted.

"Yuk! Ape Boogers!" said Guilmon feeling disgusted.

Suddenly Apemon grabbed Guilmon and lifted him up readying to punch him. "Oh no! Look out!" shouted Takato. Suddenly Takato's Digivice began to glow.

**DIGIVOLUTION**

Guilmon was encased in a red digitized egg which caused Apemon to lose its grip

"Guilmon Digivolve to… Growlmon"

Suddenly Guilmon appeared much bigger with long white hair and spikes along his arms

"Pyro Blaster!"

Guilmon blasted Apemon far away with a fireball, but Apemon soon ran back and the two began fist fighting. "Wow! He Digivolved!" said Takato feeling ever so glad. Suddenly Growlmon had done something no one expected. Growlmon shot his foot up between Apemon's 'you know what', then Apemon fell to the ground whimpering in pain. "… Not the kind of attack I'd expect my own Digimon to do. But hey, it works."

Takato took out his Digivice and Apemon disappeared in a light of binary. Soon Growlmon Degenerated back to Guilmon as the fog disappeared. "Wow Guilmon! You were awesome! Now that you've Digivolved! Its gonna get a whole lot easier to fight Digimon now! This calls for a hi-five!"

"YEAH!" After that, Takato and Guilmon then began to hi-five each other. But… their hands accidentally missed each other and-

BAM!

Takato and Guilmon accidentally smacked each other in the eye. Takato and Guilmon then began to scream and jump about in pain, soon they stopped and looked at each other noticing that they both have black eyes. "… If anyone asks… Apemon did it."

"Agreed." said Guilmon.

Then the two walked off, Takato went back to Rika's house and Guilmon ran back to his home in the park. One thing came to Takato, how would Rika react if she found out he and Guilmon gave each other high-five's, she would either sigh with annoyance or laugh. He hoped Rika would laugh since he assumed Rika would sound cute laughing, but then again Takato has no plans of ever revealing this to her.

The end for now… this time


	8. One Tamer… One Million Partners

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 8: One Tamer… One Million Partners**

Rika had finally cheered up and she quickly went back to her usual self, she even threatened Takato not to say a single word about their little emotional moment. Of course Takato immediately agreed; she had decided to let Thomas gather the information of her father, especially since her mother snapped at Rika for that.

It was only four days until the school dance. Now another mystery flew in, everyone was in the auditorium for a school meeting, according to what it could be, they were getting a new principle.

Rika and Takato sat at the back normally to avoid paper planes and spit-balls. It was also one of the best views, there they saw the principle who looked somewhat disappointed, he was standing in front of a tall desk like one of those things that people stand in front of when being elected for president.

"Ahem… students, it has come to my attention that the government has discovered my true age. You see I am actually seventy-three, thirteen years after retirement… I enjoyed being a principle so much I lied about my age just to stay on a little longer; but now I'm afraid I must go." The principle then moves his hand to the side of the curtain. "May I introduce the new principle of the school."

Suddenly a blonde man walked in, he wore thick black shades and wore a black suit. A mysterious vibe echoed throughout the auditorium, strangely enough, the mysterious vibe felt the same as Thomas's when Rika first saw him. The man just stood there silently as he flicked his silver Zippo lighter open a shut. He stood in front of the desk as the old principle walked off no longer seen by the students.

"Good morning students, I am Mitsuo Yamaki, your new principle. But you shall call me Principle Yamaki." His dull yet superior tone of voice made Rika's spine tingle; she felt that this man could easily fight a group of thugs no problem. "Now for one of my rules… I'm certainly aware of the amount of Digimon merchandise that's appeared around the school… mostly the Digimon cards…. So anyway, I'm going to add a little something to not only help the school funding slightly, but to please you students more. We're going to have Digimon card pack vending machines in the school, ten to be precise."

All the students began to talk it over to themselves. Rika and Takato done the same. "Vending machines with card packs in them? Like those soda machines at the arcade?" asked Takato.

"Yeah… didn't think we'd get a Digimon fanatic as a new principle." said Rika.

"Yeah, and he looks like the '24' type or maybe even the 'Def Jam' type." said Takato.

"Or maybe even a 'Call of Duty' or 'Halo' type." said Rika "And in a way his idea works, we get new cards, he gets money to improve the school."

"Though its kinda strange on how his idea is to take the students' money." said Takato with a bit of an annoyed and concerned look.

"Hey, he's doing it legally so why not?" asked Rika shrugging her shoulders.

"But I'm only gonna say this once. If I find out that your playing with the cards during class, the card machines will be removed; I'm only allowing Digimon cards if you agree to concentrate on your work… and on a side note, I'll be moving the school dance a day later so we can be fully prepared, so the dance is going to be in five days away." said Yamaki.

The students began to talk it over to themselves once more. "I'm glad its being moved a day later. I don't think I can bare going onto that dance floor."

"Yeah… hey something's came to me." said Takato. "Since we've got a new principle, we may not have to go to the dance right? He won't know about your punishment."

"Hey your right! Oh wait… our parents know about this don't they?" asked Rika.

"Crud… well we could just say we were allowed to stay home or… well there's the arcade for a good few hours right?" asked Takato.

Rika couldn't help but smirk, it wasn't often Takato would give anyone ideas to ditch school before, "Doubtful, but whatever."

"Oh and by the way. I'd like to see a few students after the meeting." Yamaki takes out a sheet of paper from inside his pocket. "They are… Kazu Shioda, Kenta Kitagawa, Jessica Valentine, Takato Matsuki, Henry Wong and Rika Nonaka… could they please wait outside my office for a personal meeting… ok, meeting dismissed."

Rika and Takato were silent for a few seconds "… Uh-oh." they both muttered at the same time.

* * *

Later Rika and Takato were waiting outside the principles office, she looked across the hallway and noticed that Jessica was wearing a new pair of glasses, she still had a few minor cuts but other than that, she healed much quicker than Kazu did. A little later Kenta walked out of the principles office and walked away, now it was only Rika, Takato, Henry and Jessica. Jessica glared at Rika, no doubt she was still mad at Rika for beating her up; then again she deserved it, she's been so arrogant for years and has always made fun of her since kindergarten.

It was about two minutes later when Jessica left and Henry walked in after hearing his name. Thus leaving Rika and Takato alone, again; now that Rika thought about it, whenever she's with Takato, she's normally with no one else. Its as if everyone leaves her alone when she's with Takato, as if they want to give her alone time with him.

That could be one of the reasons everyone thinks they're a couple, because they're normally alone together like young lovers. She soon just shook those thoughts away as she began to chant 'we're just friend' repeatedly over and over again in her ehad, then again their little emotional moment did make quite an impression on her. Not long later Henry walked out and Takato walked towards the door.

"G-Good luck." muttered Rika.

"Thanks." Takato entered the room leaving Rika on her own. She began to wonder something, the time when Allomon attacked, Viximon Digivolved into Renamon. Could it be that Viximon is starting to mature, meaning she'll soon be permanently a Renamon, which will be much harder to hide her. She might have to stick Renamon in the same home as Guilmon, Henry doesn't have too much trouble since Terriermon is small and could act like a doll.

Just then, Takato left and she heard her name being called, but she quickly faces Takato before she enters. "Am I in trouble?" asked Rika.

"Not sure." said Takato shrugging his shoulders. "Good luck though."

"Thanks." Rika entered the principles office where she saw principle Yamaki flicking his lighter open and shut. He kept quiet for a few minutes making Rika a little nervous.

"You're Rika Nonaka, correct?" asked Yamaki

"Yes."

"Your previous principle told me quite an interesting story about you." said Yamaki "Not a very social girl, normally ignores others and gives them the cold shoulder; I heard you've even been given the nickname… Ice Queen. Back in my days girls were all the same, cheerful, playful, and loved making friends… makes a nice change seeing you.

"Umm… thanks?" said Rika feeling confused.

"Oh don't thank me… what I find strange though is that there's one boy who your never cruel to… I believe he was the goggle wearing student before you, Takato Matsuki." said Yamaki.

"That's because we're friends... we've been friends for three years." said Rika.

"I guess that makes sense… if you weren't so cruel back then… tell me… is it possible that you have feelings for this boy?" asked Yamaki.

"I-Is that why you called me in here!? Just to ask the same question everyone else has!?" asked Rika sounding annoyed.

"Just answer the question." said Yamaki.

Rika let out an annoyed sigh "We're just friends. Nothing else, I don't have any feelings for him; I just like him as a friend because we have quite a lot in common. We're both into Digimon cards, competing against each other, and so on."

"Very well… ok now… the real reason I called you into my office is just to let you know that your punishment is still on, you still have to attend the school dance." said Yamaki.

"_Damnit! The old principle told him!" _thought Rika.

"But I'm a nice guy and I understand that Kazu and Jessica started it… so which is why I moved it a day later… and you can obviously just stay in the seats and watch the others dance." said Yamaki,

Rika was surprised, in fact she completely forgotten about that students can just watch the dance, they don't have to dance. She felt a little relieved that she doesn't have to embarrass herself.

"But from now on, if anyone makes fun of you. Don't beat them up, just tell either me or another teacher, whichever is nearest… and if I find out that you've hurt another student, you'll not only be forced to attend the next school dance… but you'll be forced to do a Square Dance, Cowgirl outfit and all… in front of the entire school and on live television. And I'll be personally making sure you're there. Are we clear?" asked Yamaki.

Rika grew scared, Yamaki knew how to threaten her just right. Her in a cowgirl outfit in front of live television was almost as bad as the Easter Photo Shoot, which still makes her flinch every time she thinks about it. "C-Crystal sir!"

"Good, now I see we understand each other. You may go now." Rika slowly walked out of the principles office feeling pretty scared and a little shaky, she noticed Takato looking confused.

"What's up?" asked Takato.

"Have you ever Square Danced in front of the school before?" asked Rika.

"No why?" Rika was silent, but Takato soon figured out what she meant.

* * *

After school, we find the two walking home, it didn't take long for Takato to break their typical silence. "So what did the new principle say?" asked Takato.

"He said I still have to attend the school dance, but I don't actually have to dance." said Rika.

"Actually; I knew we didn't have to dance… I thought you knew." said Takato.

"What? No! Also you said you weren't going because you didn't want to embarrass yourself dancing!" said Rika.

"Now… how did you know that?" asked Takato/

Rika realised that she was listening to Takato's conversation, she wasn't told it by Takato himself. "I-I… ok I may have overheard a few weeks ago." said Rika feeling embarrassed.

Takato had a slightly annoyed look, its not often he pulls a common emotion Rika pulls. Though this time it was reasonable. "Kazu and Kenta make me dance… they normally watch the other kids dance too. And sometimes… Jeri even asks me to dance with her."

"Jeri!? Wait? If she dances with you… why do people think we're a couple when you and Jeri could be?" asked Rika.

"… Good question. And I do find her really cute… I think it might be because of you really." said Takato.

"You mean the fact that I'm not so cold to you unlike the others right?" asked Rika.

"Yep." said Takato.

"So why not just dance with Jeri in the school dance?" asked Rika.

"I'd like to… but Yamaki asked me to keep you company, make sure you don't cause any problems… besides, Henry beat me to her." said Takato.

"Henry!?" asked Rika sounding surprised, she had no idea Henry and Jeri knew each other.

"Yeah… I don't know how it happened either." said Takato "Kinda came out of the blue for me."

"Do you think the school is trying to make us a couple?" asked Rika, feeling a bit embarrassed asking it however.

"… If it is, its pretty desperate to." chuckled Takato feeling a bit embarrassed himself.

"Hmph… listen to us… we may not be a couple but we seem to be talking like we are… strange isn't it?" asked Rika.

"Maybe we should say that we're close friends." said Takato.

"Hmm… that could give them the wrong idea even more." said Rika.

"… I see. Well the only thing I can say is that you could try and hang out with Kazu, Kenta and Jeri. Become friends with them." said Takato.

"Not gonna be easy… especially since they annoy me." said Rika.

"Don't I annoy you?" asked Takato.

"Actually… not as much as you used to." said Rika.

A while later, they reached Takato's neighbourhood where they part ways. Rika arrived at her home, by using the back garden to her room; she entered the living room to watch the TV for a little while, at least until she gets another call from her Digivice. Ever since Viximon Digivolved against Allomon, Rika's confidence in battling Bio-Emerged Digimon has grown by quite a bit, she's even fought a couple more Digimon after Allomon, though not as much as Takato or Henry, Viximon was still very young so she wanted to avoid too many Bio-Emerging Digimon.

Rika slumps onto the couch and picks up the TV remote and points it at the TV to turn it on, but nothing happened. She tried again, but still nothing, she sighs as she gets off the couch and looks at the back of the TV. It was plugged in and turned on, but still nothing came on. Rika looks around, she noticed that nothing electronic is on. No lights, the clock stopped, the computer's off and so on "Great… a power outage… I wonder if it's the same for Takato?"

Rika takes out her cell phone and turns it on, but it didn't come on. Rika looked confused, her cell phone shouldn't be off, its not wired to the house; Rika sighed once more, she decided to visit Takato, but first she had to change out of her uniform. So she enters her room and changes into her casual clothing.

* * *

Once she was changed, Rika was about to exit her house by using the slide-away door. But then she noticed something, Viximon wasn't here; she grew a little concerned now, normally Viximon waits for her on her bed. She takes out her Digivice and notices the red arrow so she began to follow it into the kitchen. For some strange reason, the kitchen was much darker than usual, in fact she couldn't see a thing.

"Viximon? Where are you?" Rika slowly walked forward following the red light from her Digivice and holding her free hand in front of her so not to bump into anything. Just as Rika took about ten steps forward, she stepped on something small, hard and round.

Suddenly there was a scream so loud so near that it scared Rika completely out of her wit causing her to quickly step back, fall over and smack the back of her head against the wall, her Digivice smacked the wall also causing a small short circuit.

Suddenly the lights went on revealing the cause of the scream, she looked ahead and noticed it was Thomas, he was holding his foot in pain, on the side of the kitchen was Viximon watching the boy in pain. Soon Rika's fear turned to rage. "AAGH! OOOW! Stupid ingrown toenail! Its gonna be the death of me!"

"YOU!" Thomas looked ahead and before he could react properly, Rika ran towards him and shot her knee straight into Thomas's crotch. She could've sworn she even heard a loud sickening crack; the boy immediately shot down to the ground holding his crotch in pain. "Thomas you freaking IDIOT! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Why me?" whimpered Thomas.

Rika looked around feeling a bit confused. "The lights came back on? What's going on?" Rika noticed Viximon on the side of the kitchen and she jumps into Rika's arms. "Viximon! I'm glad your safe!"

"O-Of course she's safe! She was with me!" said Thomas kneeling up looking quite annoyed.

* * *

Later Rika and Thomas were in the living room sitting next to each other on the couch, Thomas wanted to explain the situation while sitting on something soft, for obvious reasons. "So what are you doing breaking into my house?" asked Rika.

"Getting your power back on." said Thomas. "At about 6am today, a virus hacked itself into Hypnos's main computers. We done all we could to stop it but it bypassed our top security systems and made its way to the list of Digimon Tamers' information."

"And why does this have to do with getting my power back on?" asked Rika.

"Quite simple actually, whenever a virus enters a Tamer's personal info, they also have access to the Digivice. Its like entering the Digivice via wireless, and when it does, the Digivice slightly overloads and absorbs all electricity within a thousand yards around it." said Thomas.

"Why?" asked Rika.

"I'm not sure, and for some strange reason that virus never done any sort of damage, it just read the Tamer info and fled." said Thomas.

"Do you know why?" asked Rika.

"Well… I wasn't part of Hypnos the last time it happened, but according to the previous files of Hypnos, that virus copies the information from our computers and sends it to another. And that Tamer info has all personal information; date of birth, age, eye colour, hair colour, personality, allergies, fears, likes, dislikes, disabilities, location they're living right now and even personal secrets." said Thomas.

"P-Personal secrets!?" asked Rika feeling nervous, "E-Even the-"

"Even the Easter Photo Shoot." said Thomas with a very faint smirk. "We need every bit of detail so we know how the Tamer should be helped and treated. But of course we are not allowed to leak this information to anyone outside Hypnos… in fact we barely get to leak this information to anyone inside Hypnos, only the highest members can hear this info."

"So your one of them?" asked Rika.

"I shot up to the highest rank about three days after I was hired, they said my Digimon skills were incredible." said Thomas.

"So... how is that though?" asked Rika.

"Well… I suppose its ok for me to tell you. But only because I trust you." said Thomas "I don't have just one Digimon… I have one million Digimon."

"A million!? What kind of Tamer are you!?" asked Rika sounding surprised.

"One of the reasons I was hired and shot up to the highest rank was because not only did I have one million Digimon. But because I could give Tamers their Digimon." said Thomas.

"I get it… so since you have so many, you can give other kids Digimon to make them Tamers. That means you were the one who delivered me Viximon, correct?" asked Rika.

"Yes. Once a person touches a blue card, all their information is stored onto the computers, all important and unimportant, Hypnos likes to leave no detail untouched, and once a person chooses their Digimon of choice, I deliver their Digimon in the best way for them to cope with it." said Thomas.

"Like me… I got Viximon as an egg." said Rika.

"Yes… you were so cold hearted before you got given your Digimon, if we gave you a full grown fighting Digimon in your state… the results could be… emotionally crippling." said Thomas.

"So you gave me Viximon as an egg… so I could mother it and warm up right?" asked Rika.

"Correct… that's probably why your feelings for Takato are slowly developing." said Thomas.

"I DON'T have feelings." said Rika looking quite annoyed.

"If I gave you Viximon while you were cold hearted and not as an egg, you would've treated her like a fighting machine, constantly defeating Digimon to make it the strongest." said Thomas "When actually… being so emotionless and cold… it may make your Digimon stronger at time… but in the long run… it will grow even weaker."

"Wow… I never knew." muttered Rika looking down at Viximon.

"A Tamer's Digimon can only Digivolve when there's an emotional bond… whether its friendship, love, or concern… it's the same for Digimon without Tamers, they need to use their inner spirit or powerful emotions to Digivolve." said Thomas "… now anyway, back to this virus…"

"Oh right." said Rika feeling a bit embarrassed "I guess we kinda got off subject there… so why did this virus sneak into the Tamers personal info?"

"Whenever a virus does that without any damage, it means who ever sent it are going to do one of three things to it. They can either use the personal secrets to blackmail someone, use the personal info to impersonate someone… or even search for a certain someone." said Thomas.

"So your saying this virus might be searching for a Tamer?" asked Rika.

"For now we're clueless. All I know is that it's a Tamer in Tokyo itself." said Thomas.

"So it could be someone I know?" asked Rika.

"We're not sure, there's over two-hundred different Tamers in Tokyo. For all we know, it could be you… or someone on the other side of the city." said Thomas. "… well in any case, I should go." he then stood up from the couch.

"You have one million Digimon to care for right?" asked Rika looking up at him.

"Actually just one. My true partner, the other Digimon I just feed and let them take care of themselves." said Thomas.

"… That actually seems a bit lazy" said Rika.

"Think of what you want to think… and next time… can you seriously not kick a guy in their weak spots? Its very suffering." said Thomas.

"You nearly scared me to death, what was I suppose to do?" asked Rika.

"Watch my feet… I have an ingrown toenail… and believe me, its just as agonizing as getting kicked in the crotch." After that, Thomas disappears in a binary of light. Rika was left alone with Viximon who was on her lap the entire conversation; Rika just looked down at Viximon.

"So… you hungry?" asked Rika.

"Very!" cheered Viximon jumping slightly.

"Alright, lets go get you something to eat." After that, Rika walked off into the kitchen carrying Viximon to feed her.

The end for now.


	9. Silence Before the Dance

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 9: Silence Before the Dance**

Tomorrow was the school dance. Rika actually felt a little nervous, she knew she didn't have to dance, but the very thought of going to one was enough to make any girl nervous, especially their first; she was just outside the basketball court watching the workers turn the court into a dance room.

Rika looked down at her school uniform. Picturing herself in a dress, she's worn many before, but not outside the photo shoot; she was wondering how others would react to her wearing a dress. Of course only a few already know what she looks like in a dress; and she's perfectly aware of what Jessica usually wears. An over fashioned ball dress made by what she claims to be the finest textile workers in the world. _'Bite me'_

Rika knows Jessica too much, she has felt that she should dress better than her just to annoy her and leave her scarred for life. She could even see the next school headlines 'Winner of school beauty awards beaten by a tomboy in a dress'; she even began to chuckle slightly at her little idea. But she soon shook it off, she's not lowering herself to Jessica's level any time soon and if she does, she'll be taking a small trip to a nice peaceful insane asylum.

Not long later she noticed Kazu and Kenta walking past until they stopped noticing her watching the gym being remodelled.

"Uhh… h-hey Rika." said Kazu still feeling nervous around her, like most students.

"Hey." Rika said dully"Sso how's the HiAndromon card?"

"Its awesome! And... thanks a lot for it!" said Kazu regaining his confidence almost immediately.

"No problem." Rika said calmly as she looked back at the workers.

"So umm…" Kenta started to mumble feeling nervous.

"I hope you're not asking for an ultra rare card too." said Rika looking back at Kenta.

"N-No of course not." said Kenta "I was just wondering what you're wearing to the school dance?"

"Oh… just a plain dress I guess, nothing special." said Rika.

"Oh… ok." said Kenta. Rika couldn't help but suspect that Takato told him or Kazu about her photo-shoots before.

"Oh and one other thing." said Kazu.

"What?" asked Rika feeling a bit annoyed by their constant questions.

"Well… if ya got nothing else to do the day after the school dance, maybe you can come play cards with us?" asked Kazu. "I know Takato would be happy?"

"Hm… I'll think about it." said Rika losing her annoyance.

"Ok cool… so we'll see you later." said Kazu.

Kazu and Kenta walk off leaving Rika alone, she was relieved they were gone so she can drift away in her thoughts, but at the same time she felt that Kazu and Kenta have stopped claiming her and Takato being a couple. Maybe she could beat Kazu and Kenta in cards. Not long later Jeri walked up to Rika, she found Jeri a little annoying because of her Chippy and cheerful personality, but at the same time she felt as if that what makes Jeri… well Jeri

"Hiya Rika." said Jeri feeling cheerful.

"Hey Jeri." said Rika in her bored tone.

"Are you gonna dance with Takato?" asked Jeri.

"No… we're just gonna sit at the tables and chat while we watch the rest of you dance." said Rika "We might even play some Digimon cards to kill time."

"Oh…" Jeri seemed disappointed "That's not very romantic."

Rika let out an annoyed sigh "Jeri… we're just friends!"

"I know… but me and a stranger are gonna dance, and we haven't known each other longer than you and Takato." said Jeri.

"Lemme guess… Henry Wong is his name right?" asked Rika.

"You know him?" asked the confused Jeri, tilting her head slightly.

Rika's memories of Gargomon almost killing her and her chasing after Henry came to her mind, she just quickly shudders before she gives Jeri her answer. "He owes me… BIG TIME."

"O-Oh… so you're not friends then?" asked Jeri.

"I think him and Takato are." said Rika calming down a bit.

"I think so, after all a European boy claimed that Takato got Henry a bunny doll." said Jeri.

"Bunny doll?" Rika soon realised what she meant, Terriermon. But she couldn't put her finger on the European boy. "Oh right that thing… I think that's his bedtime comfort or something." Jeri began to chuckle and she just walks closer to Rika with a smirk. "What?"

"So is it the same for that yellow doll Takato got you?" asked Jeri.

"Huh? What yellow doll?" asked Rika.

"That yellow round doll with the fox tail. The European boy told me that Takato got you it."

"… Oh that, I just keep it as a decoration. Its nothing special." said Rika looking away from her.

"Seemed pretty special if you had it with you in that magazine." chuckled Jeri.

Rika faced Jeri again "So you figured that it was me huh?"

"It took me a while… I guess its because you don't normally have you hair down." said Jeri.

"… Well my mom suggested the doll in the photograph." said Rika.

"And I often wonder why a sporty twerp like yourself has got one of those, huh pineapple head." Rika and Jeri look and noticed Jessica.

"Well if it isn't ol' battered face Jessica. Did you come for another one of Rika's special plastic surgeries?" she asked with a small smirk.

"Funny… did you come up with that all by yourself?" asked Jessica sarcastically.

"What do you care? And what do you want? I'm in the middle of a conversation with Jeri and I haven't got time to be listening to another one of your arrogant brags… then again I don't listen even when I have time." said Rika.

"Oh shut it pineapple head! I know you can't touch me, principle Yamaki told me you'd get the most embarrassing punishment if you did." said Jessica with a smirk.

"Believe me… it'll be worth it." said Rika glaring at Jessica who leaned back knowing she was serious,

"What do you want anyway?" asked Jeri looking curious.

"A favour really, I only want to dance with Takato. This way no one will think you're a couple." said Jessica.

"What are you asking me for? I'm not Takato's owner or his keeper… I'm just his friend." said Rika.

"I know, but I thought I'd ask if it'd be alright if I dance with your date." said Jessica "And poor little Rika will be left on her own… then again, that's normally how you like it."

Rika let out another sigh "You really think asking me permission to dance with Takato is gonna get you a dance with him… in that case no."

"Oh and why not…?" asked Jessica in a mocking tone "Does Rika want Takato all for herself…? Or doesn't the Ice Queen want to be left alone again…?"

"None of those… I just don't like you. In fact your very existence has been nothing but a bad itch for me, and the only way that I can get rid of it, is by watching you suffer a slow and painful death in the most humiliating way." Rika looked quite angry saying it, causing both Jeri and Jessica to step back.

"Now that's just cold, no surprise coming from you." said Jessica.

"So if you think I'm so cold, then explain why I gave Kazu an incredibly rare Digimon card as an act of apology for hurting him?" asked Rika.

"Peh… a Digimon card, to me, they're just scraps of card worth nothing but the trash." said Jessica.

"What's the matter? Not happy how I never apologized to you?" asked Rika with a faint smirk.

"I'd rather eat skunk dung then listen to your apology." said Jessica.

"… Good, because you deserved that beating." said Rika

"This certainly sounds like an intellectual conversation."

'_That voice' _thought Rika

Suddenly she noticed Thomas walk up to them, but he wasn't wearing school uniform, so no doubt he's not a student. "Hey it's the European boy." said Jeri.

'_I should've guessed, he does have a British accent.' _thought Rika "So what are you doing here Thomas?"

"Both business and sight-seeing." said Thomas.

"Heh, aren't you good looking." said Jessica smirking.

Thomas kept silent as he looked at Jessica, then he faced Rika once more

"So I'm guessing you're not a student then?" asked Rika.

"Nope, I get taught at home." said Thomas.

"I know you're here for sight seeing, but why in a school?" asked Jeri.

"That's more of the business side of why I'm here, sorry to say but it's personal." said Thomas.

"Personal business?" asked Jeri

"Pretty much, meaning I cannot tell you." said Thomas

"I doubt its anything much really." said Jessica "You say its personal business but I bet it's just something embarrassing like toilet cleaning or something."

"Think of it how you want it to be… anyway, I should go, the principle wants me in his office to discuss something important." Thomas walks off leaving Rika, Jeri and Jessica.

"Oh and by the way Jess." said Rika.

"What?"

"Beat it!" said Rika "I'm through talking to you."

"Hmph! believe me, I will dance with Takato at the dance tomorrow." Jessica walks off.

"Well… anyway I better go, class is gonna start in ten minuets." said Jeri looking like she was about o walk off.

After that, Jeri walked off leaving Rika alone with her thoughts again. Something did bug him about Thomas, he said he was from Hypnos which handles Digimon that enter the human world, even provide Tamers their Digimon, and just now he said he had business in this school. What's his story? Rika thought, but then she just shrugs her shoulders and looks back at the gym, to her surprise it was already complete and the workers left, she looks around quickly, she never noticed the workers passing her since the door she was in front of was the only one.

'_How long was I talking?' _thought Rika

Rika began to think about Jessica's promise, to dance with Takato. When she thought about it, if Takato did dance with her, people would think of them less as a couple and just friends like she's possibly said about a million times for the past three years. But at the same time, she doesn't want Jessica to dance with Takato because she hates her, she wouldn't mind if it was Jeri or some other girl he found cute, soon a thought came to her, it was kinda embarrassing and she hope to never reveal this question to anyone.

'_I wonder if Takato thinks I'm cute?' _Rika just shook her head, she was surprised she even thought of such a ridiculous question.

"Hey Rika." Rika looked and noticed Takato walking towards her, that time it was a person she was glad to see.

"Oh hey Takato." said Rika.

"What are you doing here?" asked Takato.

"I was bored so I watched the workers turn the basketball court into the dance room." said Rika.

Takato looked through the door and saw at how glamorous it looked, but then he turned to Rika. "So… have you seen Thomas?"

"Not long ago actually, why?" asked Rika.

"Well he was in my house yesterday trying to put my power back on, he looked so funny." chuckled Takato.

"What do you mean?" asked Rika.

"Well as soon as I got near him, he shouted 'don't come any closer or you'll crush my foot!' in what may be the most panicked tone I've ever heard." said Takato.

"Oh right… yeah I accidentally stepped on his foot when he was in my house, his scream almost gave me a heart attack. So I hurt him where no guy wants to get hurt." Rika looked at Takato clenching his legs, Rika just ignored it. "Turns out he has an ingrown toenail."

"Wow… that's gotta hurt… what's an ingrown toenail?" asked Takato.

"I don't know." said Rika "He's in the school somewhere, why don't you ask him?"

"I'll do that later. Right now I'm just wondering where we should sit." said Takato.

"Anywhere will do really, its no big deal." Takato slowly entered the dance room and looked at the sets of tables. "Hmph… not listening to me huh?" Rika walked into the dance room too, she felt she should just hurry Takato up. But… Something wasn't right, just as Rika stepped into the middle of the dance room.

Everything turned quiet, she took one step forward, no sound. Not even a small 'clomp' from her foot landing on the floor; she looked ahead and noticed Takato looking as if he was going to pick up something, but he was in that still position. It was like he was frozen.

Rika called out Takato's name, but she grew worried; no sound came out of her mouth. She looked around worried, nothing was moving, there was no sound either. It was as if time had stopped, she couldn't hear a thing, not even her own breathing; but she knew she was because her chest was moving in and out, much quicker than normal.

Rika began to grow really scared, she had no idea what was happening. She tried to pinch herself to see if she was just dreaming, but she felt nothing; she couldn't hear or feel anything, she couldn't even hear herself think. She began to feel like she was going to panic at anytime now.

Suddenly she heard something, but it wasn't anything she was familiar with. She heard what might have been the wind, but it had a ghostly moaning sound to it; it was as if this places has had so many deaths that were trying to drag her with them. Rika began to grow even more scared, she just wanted to get out of here.

But she couldn't. For some reason her legs were completely numb, so she just stood there and was forced to listen to the agonizing screams. She even held her ears but they did nothing, in fact the screaming was even louder. But the screaming became the least of her worries.

Suddenly everything went black around her, her feelings were back but only for the worse. She felt a cold mist, it was so icy cold she felt if she fell asleep like this, she could die; but this mist was so much different; she felt that's where the agonizing screams came from, the mist was somehow the reason she couldn't move, it was like the mist had got a hold of her.

She felt the mist closing in on her like it was going to crush her to death like a snake; as it got closer, she heard the terrifying screaming even louder. Suddenly she even began to hear cackling, it sounded like it came from a monster, the cause of the screaming. She now began to feel her heart racing, she was in a state of panic; she just held her head and began screaming "make it stop!" over and over again, each one louder than the last, till suddenly.

"MAKE IT STOP!"

Suddenly she felt something warm and wet splash over her face and all the horrible sounds faded instantly, she even saw the dance floor again. She gasped for breath letting her heart slow down, she looked in front of her and noticed Takato looking scared in a concerned way, in his hand was a plastic cup. She then felt her face and noticed it was wet with warm water. "A-Are you alright!?" asked Takato

"T-Takato!? W-What happened!?" asked Rika trying to calm down.

"I'm not sure, as soon as you walked in you began to looked like you were gonna panic at any second." said Takato. "I tried calling you but you just began whispering 'make it stop' So I splashed you with water to snap you outta it."

"Wha-what?" Rika just collapsed onto a nearby chair, she felt her heart slow back down to its normal speed. Takato sat on a chair next to her to comfort her.

"Are you alright?" asked Takato.

"Y-Yeah… I'm fine now… don't know what got over me." said Rika.

"Umm… do you want me to walk you to your class?" asked Takato.

Rika looked at the clock and noticed it was almost time for the final lesson. Rika just turned to Takato. "I-I'm fine…" Rika slowly stood up and walked out of the dance room. But she leaned against the wall somehow feeling weak, Takato walked up to her and helped her up. "Ok… forget what I said."

Takato just smirked. "What did you say?" he said in a joking manner

Rika and Takato slowly walked to Rika's class, but she looked back at the door leading to the dance room. For some strange reason, once she stepped in there, she felt…

Trapped

The end for now.


	10. Dance with the Devil

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 10: Dance with the Devil**

"Snow! Why did it have to snow!?" If there's one thing Rika hated more than anything, it was snow. She hated the cold, the ice, the sleet, the hail, basically everything about winter she absolutely can't stand; the only thing that does make her feel a little better about it is Christmas, but not enough to make her feel too happy. The day barely started and Rika was already in a fowl mood, it was snowing hard enough to last for hours on the ground, but it was light enough to keep school open.

We find Rika on her way to school wearing a thick puffy coat, a wool hat, a scarf over her face, wool gloves and she even wore an extra layer of trousers to keep her legs warm, in fact the only thing out of warm clothing is her eyes so she can see. Not only did she hate the cold, she was quite vulnerable to it, meaning she can catch illnesses much easier than others in the winter.

But what didn't make sense was that it was September. Its still autumn, she looked to her left and noticed Takato wearing just a puffy coat, gloves and a wool hat, he even wore his goggles over his eyes to keep the snow out of them, but compared to Rika's amount of thermal clothing, Takato might as well be in just a vest and boxers. Then again he wasn't as vulnerable to the cold as her, so she envies Takato for that. Takato turns his head to her readying to answer her question. "I'm not sure… I know its getting colder but this is ridiculous."

"Hmph… I betcha I'm gonna die of hypothermia!" said Rika.

"Relax Rika." chuckled Takato "I bet the school's gonna be even warmer inside."

Luckily Takato was right, it was incredibly warm inside. The heaters were on full blast, Rika was glad to be out of her thermal clothing and into her casual clothing. Since today was the school dance, the students were allowed to be out of uniform.

To her surprise, she saw Thomas walking up to her, what surprised her the most was that Thomas was carrying Viximon. "W-What are you doing with Viximon?" asked Rika quietly, so as to not attract any attention.

"Just taking care of her, she's not used to the cold so well so I'm gonna keep her nice and warm for you." said Thomas.

"Oh… thanks." said Rika, feeling a bit bad for leaving Viximon behind.

"No problem. By the way, do you have your Digivice with you?" asked Thomas.

"Yeah, why?"

"Good. You never know when a Digimon is going to Bio-Emerge… y'know, like what happened with Allomon." said Thomas.

"Yeah… wait. Is this why you're here? Because a Digimon might Bio-Emerge here?" asked Rika

"Something along those lines yeah." said Thomas. "I must go now, good luck at the dance."

"Umm… thanks I think." said Rika.

"Bye Rika!" said Viximon

"Yeah, bye Viximon." Thomas then walks off with Viximon still close to him. Rika knew Viximon was going to be safe, after all, he claimed to be a Tamer with one million Digimon. She still finds it unbelievable to be honest, but none the less, he is good at raising Digimon, she knew that.

Throughout the entire day, she heard many students talking about her and Takato at the dance; she wasn't too surprised actually, considering she constantly said she wasn't going, and now she's forced to. That didn't annoy her too much, what annoyed her was that some of the students claimed that the two are gonna dance in front of the moonlight or a bunch of different types of romantic dance moves.

She clearly said that her and Takato are just gonna sit at the tables and play Digimon cards and maybe even chat. Or maybe even Jessica is gonna dance with Takato instead, either way there's no way she's going to the middle of the dance floor to dance, she might just go to the middle after the dance in order to reach the door.

Also, yesterday, that chilling feeling she got from the dance floor; she felt that its going to happen again as soon as she takes one step into that room. She definitely doesn't want to embarrass herself by going into another state of panic, soon she just shook the thought away; it might've just been because she was nervous.

* * *

At last; it was that time, it was time for her to go to the dance room; Rika had gotten changed in the girl's toilet room, she was now wearing a plain white dress with small white slip-ons to match, she even replaced her hair band with a white clasp just for the heck of it, it kept her hair style the same way, it just matched the dress.

Rika felt a little embarrassed, it wasn't surprising actually. It is her first time going to a school dance, and its her first time wearing a dress outside the photo shoot, after she took one step out of the girls toilet, she was immediately greeted by Jeri, who was wearing a cute little red dress with hearts on it. "Hey Rika, what a lovely dress."

"I guess… your's sure do have a lot of hearts on it." said Rika.

"Thank." chuckled Jeri.

"So where's your dance?" Rika didn't care as much however, she felt she should ask because its what a lot of people would.

"Oh you mean Henry… he said he was gonna head to the dance room once he's done an errand for that European boy." said Jeri.

"He does have a name… its Thomas." said Rika.

"I know, its just funny calling him that. Especially since he doesn't complain." said Jeri.

"Nothing under a kick between the legs and a stamp on the foot seems to faze that guy." said Rika, trying her best to hide her slightly amused tone.

"I guess, he's kinda like you." said Jeri tilting her head.

"Me!?" asked Rika feeling surprised.

"Well he's quiet, serious, smart and even the lonesome type." said Jeri.

"I… I guess." Rika felt a bit surprised, not realising how much she and Thomas were alike "Well anyway, have you seen Takato?"

"I think he's talking to Jess." said Jeri.

Rika sighed with annoyance. "Do you know where they are?"

"I think they're by the cafeteria."

"Right… thanks." After that, Rika left and headed towards the cafeteria.

* * *

There she saw Takato and Jessica talking, she just stood by a wall listening to their conversation, waiting to strike. She noticed that Takato was wearing the red tuxedo Rumiko made him, and Jessica was wearing a princess like dress overloaded with sparkling accessories. "So Takato… you're going with Rika right?"

"Uh… yeah, after all Jeri's taken… not to mention I'm really just there to play Digimon cards with her." said Takato feeling a bit nervous, knowing where this conversation was going to go.

"Oh please… that girl couldn't care less if she's alone or not." chuckled Jessica "So why not ditch her for me? I'm much prettier than her and I can teach you how to dance."

"How will that change my mind?" asked Takato tilting his head "I'm not there to dance, just play cards with Rika. Besides, the principle asked me to keep her company."

"Oh please, he won't know, bend the rules a little." said Jessica.

"I'm not much of a rules bending guy." said Takato.

"This is why no girl likes you… you're too obedient and geeky!" said Jessica with a smirk.

"G-Geeky!?" exclaimed Takato leaning forward slightly.

"Always a rules follower. If you bend the rules a little, you'll be a ladies man in no time." said Jessica.

"L-Look I'm not a girl chaser!" said Takato starting to get annoyed.

"Then why do you hang out with pineapple head?" asked Jessica.

"Her name is Rika! And we hang out because we're friends, like me and Jeri! Just friends!" said Takato.

"Oh please, I know you always make eyes to her." chuckled Jessica.

"Do not!" said Takato as he started to blush.

"Then dance with me. That'll prove you and Rika aren't a couple." said Jessica leaning forward.

"I'm not dancing with an arrogant girl like you!" Takato's tone was getting a little more deeper and serious. Rika can only assume its only a matter of time before Takato loses his temper.

"Oh yes you will!" said Jessica starting to get annoyed herself "Or I'm going to spread the word that you and Rika made out after the dance!"

"We never would do that!" said Takato.

"True, but its not like anyone's gonna believe you and Rika." said Jessica.

Suddenly Takato began to growl with irritation. "Would you just beat it you DUMB BLONDE!"

Rika grew shocked at Takato's insult, even Jessica was stunned, but then Rika smirked. _'Bravo!'_

"How dare you!" Suddenly Jessica slapped Takato shooting him to the ground, Rika grew shocked again. Then Jessica grabs Takato by the shirt collar pulling him up and she pulled of Takato's goggles.

"Hey! Give those back!" demanded Takato.

"After making a mockery of me!? Never! I'm gonna ruin these things and make sure you don't go near that Ice Queen Rika!" shouted the enraged Jessica.

Rika grew angry now, she just wanted to punch Jessica but principle Yamaki's threat prevented her to, but she looked outside the door and saw something of interest. _'Just in time'_

Jessica threw Takato onto the ground and threw the goggles on the ground far from him and threaten to stomp on them. But before she did. Suddenly a foot quickly kicked the goggles away from Jessica's foot and they slide towards Takato. They both look and saw Rika. "Rika!?"

"Forcing Takato to dance with you, then crush his favourite accessory and make sure he never gets to me in the school dance! Who's the Ice Queen now!?" asked Rika looking quite angry.

"Oh please, you're cold to everyone! there's no way I could ever be an Ice Queen!" said Jessica.

"Is that so?"

"That's right. Forcing Takato to dance with me is just the crushing moment you deserve! Your one and only love life stolen by me!"

Rika stepped forward "Say what you want, but me and Takato are just friends. And no matter how many times you say we're a couple, that's not gonna make me see Takato any different than he is now. He's still the same old goggle head I made friends with three years ago."

"Hmph… one person can never make you any different you were eight years ago, a cold lonesome girl." said Jessica.

"So what? I'd never force anyone out of a friendship like you were trying to do, I'll never act arrogant or lower myself to anyone's level… and last but not least." Rika then smirked "I would never wear a tacky dress like yours, something like that would make anyone look like a tramp!"

"WHAT!?" Suddenly Jessica punched Rika onto the ground, but at the same time, there was a flash. Jessica looked and noticed Kazu (wearing a black suit) with a camera, then she looks at Rika smirking. "Y-You set me up!?"

Rika slowly stood up and walks up to Takato and helped him up, and than Takato placed on his goggles with a smirk. "Well that worked out fine."

"W-What!? You planned this!?" asked Jessica.

"Did you really think I would just charge in with guns blazing? I'm not an idiot like you." said Rika "Principle Yamaki hates bullying. We could just show that photo of you hitting me and you'll be in trouble."

"You wouldn't dare!" exclaimed Jessica.

"Relax, we won't show Yamaki it… if you dance with Kenta." said Kazu.

"K-Kenta!? Your blackmailing me!?" asked Jessica.

"Its your choice, you can either dance with Kenta or get into major trouble." said Rika.

Jessica looked furious as she just remained silent. She knew Rika had the upper hand this time. "Man! And to think you're just doing it to make sure I won't dance with your boyfriend!"

Rika glared at Jessica "Actually I'm doing this just to see you get the fall for once. Throughout the years I've known you, you've always got away with your arrogance and forcing the kids to take the blame by either threats or flirts. I'm practically doing this for all the students who you got into trouble for your own actions. Now either dance with Kenta or do a Square Dance by order of Principle Yamaki!"

Jessica simply growled at Rika, looking as if her eyes were going to burst into flames. "Fine! I'll dance with that stupid twerp!" Jessica stamps off irritated.

Kazu then walks up to Takato. "You ok dude?"

"I'll be fine, she hits like a girl." Takato noticed Rika glaring at him. "A very weak girl!"

"And thanks for your help Kazu." said Rika with a smirk.

"Hey, you gave me that HiAndromon card! It's the least I can do… well I better get to the dance, I can't wait to see Jessica's face!" Kazu runs off chuckling.

Rika then turned her head to Takato. "Well… I guess we better get going too. Did you bring your deck?"

"Yep… umm… did Jessica hurt you?" asked Takato concerned.

"No… actually she missed, I just pretended for the camera."

"Oh right… maybe I should've done that."

* * *

Later Rika and Takato were standing in front of the door leading to the dance room. Rika actually felt really nervous but the two enter anyway.

For about half and hour now, Rika and Takato were sitting at a table farthest from the group of dancers, they noticed a few times Jessica dancing with Kenta; Jessica looked as if she was going to go berserk anytime while Kenta actually looked a little embarrassed with a smirk. After Rika won at Digimon cards against Takato again, she noticed Kenta and Jessica again.

"Kenta looks happy." said Rika.

"Well he's always wanted a date for the dance, I know you wouldn't do it and Jeri already had a date. We were glad you came up with a plan to blackmail Jess." said Takato.

"It wasn't actually going to be blackmail, personally I would've loved to see Jess do a Square Dance, Kazu just added that part so I went along with it." said Rika.

"Well we can easily say that worked out well." said Takato.

"Yeah." a few minutes of silence passed, suddenly Rika didn't feel right; she began to feel cold, she lets out a sigh and she saw her own breath in cold steam. "Uhh… T-Takato… a-aren't you cold?"

"Huh? No I'm just fine, why?" asked Takato looking concerned.

"I… feel so cold…" She began to feel even worse now, she felt the icy mist that held her in place yesterday, except this time, it was around her neck. She now had trouble breathing, her heart began to accelerate, her hearing was even starting to fade again. _'Wh-what's happening to me!?'_

"R-Rika!? Are you alright!?" asked Takato looking even more concerned.

"I… I… I…" She felt Takato's hand on her arm, but she felt nothing. She began to feel even more scared now, she just quickly panicked. "I need air!"

Suddenly Rika ran from her table and out of the dance room ignoring Takato calling to her; Kazu ran up to Takato. "What was that about!?"

"I'm not sure! I better follow her!" said Takato.

"Yeah, you ain't gonna miss anything here." said Kazu.

Takato quickly ran out of the dance room to follow Rika, but she was no where to be found. "Rika!? Where are you!?"

* * *

Rika was on the roof of the building, which was just above the dance room, it was the nearest place where Rika could get fresh air, at this point she didn't care if it snowed or not, it was snowing lighter than before though. She leaned against a wall catching her breath, she couldn't understand what had happened. It was the same as yesterday. "Is that room haunted?… Why am I the only one affected by this?… what's going on!?"

"I can answer that"

Rika recognized that voice and was in a state of fear, it was the same voice the cackling belonged to; the same cackling she heard yesterday when she was trapped in that ghostly mist. Rika quickly shot off the wall and looked around in a panic. "W-Who's there!?"

"Please… don't be scared… I mean you no harm."

"L-Like that's easy to believe!" said Rika trying to sound tough as she looked around, but she knew she was more scared than anything "You're just some sort of monster aren't you!?"

"Oh how cold of you… just how I like it."

"W-What!?" Suddenly it began to get much colder; but what scared her more was her shadow in front of her, it took a completely different shape, it was much taller and had a large set of wings. Rika grew even more scared, she felt she could faint at any minute.

"But… I am not a monster…"

That voice sounded like it was very, very close. Rika then realised one thing, her shadow didn't take a new shape; it was someone else's shadow… Someone or something was standing behind her.

Rika slowly shifted her eyes to the left slowly readying herself to look behind. Once her eyes got as far as they could, she was ready to turn her head.

Suddenly a set of large white hands grabbed her; covering her mouth and pinning her arms together preventing any sort of escape, she even felt her feet being lifted off the ground. Rika began to scream her lungs out but they were muffled so no one could hear her.

"I'm a **DIGITAL MONSTER!**"

Suddenly the creature began to laugh menacingly; Rika began to panic thinking she was going to die still trying to scream. Soon her vision was fading…

And thus… darkness.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Takato left the dance room to look for Rika. "Rika!? Where are you!?"

"Takato!" Takato looked and saw Thomas who looked like he was in a panic, he noticed him holding Viximon.

"T-Thomas!? And Viximon!?"

"Takato! Where's Rika!?" asked Thomas.

"I don't know, she just ran off begging for air!" said Takato.

"D-Damn it!" grunted Thomas.

"W-What!? What is it!?" asked Takato.

"She's in grave danger! Remember that virus I told you about!?" asked Thomas "We've just discovered what it was! It's not a virus! It's a Digimon!"

"And its after Rika! We have to get her out of here before that Digimon does!" said Viximon.

"Oh man! But where could she be!?" asked Takato looking around.

"Well she said she was begging for air right!?" asked Thomas. "Where's the nearest place someone could get fresh air!?"

"Wait! … The roof!" Takato and Thomas noticed the stairway to the roof so they both dashed up them and ran towards the door.

Suddenly something blasted them back down to the bottom, they both got up and looked that the door was covered in many icicles spiked everywhere like a rolled up hedgehog. "DAMN IT! Too late!"

"What do we do!?" asked Takato.

"Rika!" called Viximon.

Thomas looked around, there he noticed the fire alarm.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rika was in some sort of icy domain, she was so scared and cold she felt she could die at any minute. She couldn't believe this was happening. "T-T-Takato! H-Help me!"

Suddenly she felt two thick white blanket like objects wrap themselves round her and lifted her off the ground; as she took a better look, they were actually white wings. They felt exactly like the icy mist that ensnared her, whatever was behind her connected to the wings, she knew she wasn't gonna escape from it anytime soon. "Welcome to my parlour… said the spider to the fly."

"A-Are you a Digimon?" asked Rika, still feeling scared and shivering.

"Yes."

"So… this is a Digital Zone?" asked Rika.

"Yes exactly, beautiful isn't it?"

"N-No! I hate the cold, I hate ice!" said Rika.

"Oh come now… it matches you so well…"

Rika opened her eyes further "What?"

"How you're ever so cold to those around you, thinking they're nothing but a waste of time, how you refuse to talk to anyone."

"T-That's not true!" said Rika closing her eyes tight shaking her head

"But it is true my dear… that's why we are destined to be partners."

Rika stopped "P-Partners?"

"Yes... together we will be the strongest team in the world."

"Strongest?" Rika liked the idea of becoming stronger, but she then closed her eyes once more "N-No! I already have a partner… Viximon!"

"A baby Digimon… she more trouble than she's worth, you were almost killed because she never fought back better. When I can not only fight better, but destroy all Digimon that even face me!"

Rika's eyes widened "D-Destroy… but that's just not right… I've been sending them home."

"Bah… weak Digimon who enter the human world are not worth sending back, might as well destroy them like the trash they are… whereas I… I am the most powerful Digimon there is."

"No! Viximon is my partner… I don't care if she's weak… she's still my partner…" Rika began to shed tears "In fact… she's… my baby."

"Digimon are not meant to be cared for like innocent children… we are warriors of the land, we fight for mere enjoyment… pride… domination… we are a true warrior race… Viximon is nothing like a real Digimon!"

"I… don't care… you're nothing but a monster!" said Rika.

Rika soon felt the Digimon's white hands grab her as his wings flew apart.

"Rika… I told you already… I'm a Digital Monster… we are more alike than you think; I too am cold and cruel to others, just like you… I too want to be the greatest, just like you want to be greatest at Digimon cards… how you destroy your opponents showing no mercy, I too destroy my opponents with no mercy!"

Rika closed her eyes again, not wanting to hear what he said "N-No!"

"Yes! We are so much alike… join me… and you will be the most powerful Tamer there is!"

Rika shook her head "I-I can't… its true I'm cold and cruel to others… and how I show no mercy to anyone in cards… but there's one thing that makes us different."

"And what is that?

Her memories began to flow through her mind, remembering everyone who was nice to hear, especially Takato. Rika suddenly grew from scared to determined, she noticed that the ice was actually starting to melt. "I have friends!" Suddenly Rika's Digivice began to glow making he Digimon gasp "And as long as I have friends… I don't need power!"

* * *

Meanwhile back to Takato and Thomas, Thomas had activated the fire alarm and everyone was running outside to the playfield. "Keep going! Don't look back!"

Suddenly Viximon began to glow. Thomas quickly dropped her as she Digivolved into Renamon just as the last students left without noticing. "Renamon!?" exclaimed Takato.

"Rika's Digivice must've activated… that means we still have time!" said Thomas.

"Time!? For what?!" asked Takato.

"What kidnapped Rika!?" asked Renamon

"A Digimon we've been hunting for years!" said Thomas. "Its killed Tamers and Digimon without any form of mercy… looking for the one Tamer to make him the most powerful… but he has to get that Tamer when he or she has started early, that way they're easiest to intimidate to working with him!"

"Rika! She's only been a Tamer for a month!" said Takato.

"Which is why we must take him down!" Thomas then puts on a strange yellow and black glove, then it a binary of light appeared around it and there appeared a long rifle like weapon in his hands, it was pure black with yellow lines going through it and it had a small emblem on the side, a 'H' inside a large circle which had spirals inside.

* * *

Back to Rika, she felt more confident, like her Digivice was giving her warmth, she could even see the ice melting fast.

"So you refuse… I was afraid of that."

Suddenly the Digimon only used one hand to grab her, she noticed the other hand was use to light up the room. To her horror, she saw many Digimon frozen in blocks of ice, if that wasn't enough to scare her, what scared her the most was that there were humans trapped in the blocks of ice too, between ages ten and thirty, all of them were holding Digivices.

"I have fought thousands to find the right Tamer to make me stronger. I had to slay so many Digimon and humans to find you!"

"M-Me!?" Rika was suddenly lifted higher making her feel more scared than confident.

"Because you were the only one of them that was so dark and young. I can only become a human's Digimon if they are still young with Digimon like you! But if your going to refuse to me then fine… lets see how much colder you can be when you're **SIX FEET UNDER ICE!**"

Suddenly the Digimon slammed Rika onto the ground still standing. What shocked her more was that ice began to develop around her ankles and began to slowly rise up, she saw that the ice wasn't melting anymore, it was growing. Rika looked behind her to finally see the Digimon, it was a white devil like creature with a red bat mark on his chest. "To think I've searched for so long to find a blind weakling! I'll just destroy this world!"

"Knock! Knock!"

Suddenly there was an explosion which destroyed part of the ice wall, it was Takato, Thomas and Renamon. She felt incredibly glad, but she soon turned scared as she noticed the ice was now around her knees. "Rika!" Takato exclaimed.

"Takato! HELP!"

"You bet I will!" said Takato about to charge, until Thomas grabbed his shoulder.

"No! You haven't got your Digimon with you!" said Thomas.

"I gotta help somehow!" Thomas quickly hands Takato another glove, once Takato put it on, there appeared a massive hammer with a spike at one end after a flash of binary light. "W-Woah!"

"Smash the ice! Me, Renamon and my partner shall handle this!" said Thomas.

"Your partner!?" asked Takato.

Thomas quickly took out his Digivice and shot out a white digitized light. Suddenly a round bat like creature came out. "Meet my partner! DemiDevimon!"

"So you have a devil Digimon! Let us see just who is more powerful!"

"Bring it IceDevimon!" Thomas, Renamon and DemiDevimon charged towards IceDevimon. Takato ran towards Rika and began to hammer the ice that was already up to Rika's waist.

"Diamond Storm!"

"Demi Dart!"

Renamon shot thousands of crystals at IceDevimon while DemiDevimon shot a black energy arrow at him too, but IceDevimon quickly blocks with his wings, Thomas quickly jumps up and blasts IceDevimon's face with his energy rifle at point blank range shooting IceDevimon a few feet back.

Takato continued to smash the ice around Rika which had rose up to Rika's chest. Rika grew so scared she actually began to shed tears. "T-Takato! Please hurry!"

"I'm trying!" shouted Takato.

Suddenly Thomas, DemiDevimon and Rika were shot back by IceDevimon's claw attack. Thomas quickly jumped back up and looked around. "Damn! He's getting stronger more ice is around him... there's got to be a way too- THAT'S IT!"

Suddenly Thomas jumped up and set his energy rifle to full blast and then he pointed it to the ground. "GOING DOWN!"

Thomas fired an energy ball at the ground causing it to shatter. Everyone fell from the Digital Zone and into the dance room now wrecked from the rubble; when Rika landed, the ice smashed releasing her. Takato quickly threw the hammer away and helped up Rika. "Rika! Are you alright!?"

"I-I don't know!" said Rika trying to get her breath, she looked up to Takato and almost felt a loud heartbeat.

"My domain! You ruined it!" growled IceDevimon looking around.

"How else would we get an advantage to beat you?" asked Thomas looking smug.

"And now that your on our turf, you stand no chance!" said DamiDevimon

"Now get ready for the real fight." said Renamon looking quite angry, likely because of the danger IceDevimon put Rika in.

"Ha! Please…" Suddenly large icicles began to grow from the ground around IceDevimon.

"Damn it! Takato! Get Rika out of here!" shouted Thomas.

Takato began to help Rika out of the dance room. But before they could even get close to the door, large icicles shot from around them making a small cage surprising the two.

"You're not going anywhere!" said IceDevimon.

DemiDevimon shot another Demi Dart at IceDevimon, this time it blasted his face knocking him back slightly, Renamon shot her Diamond Storm attack at IceDevimon's chest dealing major damage. Then Thomas ran towards IceDevimon and blasted him with the energy rifle.

"Keep it up!" cheered Takato.

"Don't give up Renamon!" said Rika.

"THAT'S IT! AVALANCHE CLAW!" Suddenly a huge blizzard shot from IceDevimon's wings covering the entire room. DemiDevimon was now frozen solid in mid air before dropping to the ground, Thomas's legs and energy rifle was frozen too and Renamon was frozen up to her neck.

"Damn it! I can't break free!" grunted Thomas.

IceDevimon slowly walked towards Renamon walking past Thomas who desperately tried to get free, Rika grew scared of what IceDevimon was about to do to her, Rika's Digivice began to glow slightly.

"How scarring would it be… for little Rika's baby to die at my hands!" Rika looks and to her horror; IceDevimon grabbed Renamon's head readying to crush it, Rika couldn't move or do anything for that matter.

"NO RENAMON!" Suddenly a huge light shot from Rika's Digivice. It was so bright and powerful it shattered the ice around everyone; Renamon began to glow so bright it created a shockwave blasting IceDevimon to the other side of the room slamming into the wall.

* * *

**DIGIVOLUTION**

Suddenly Renamon was encased inside a blue digitized egg

"Renamon Digivolve too…"

As the Digivolution proceeded, IceDevimon looked towards in shock while Rika along with everyone else looked in amazement as to what was happening

"Alright… its Kyubimon!" cheered Rika.

When the egg exploded creating a shockwave, Renamon was now a four legged fox instead and had nine waving tails.

"Renamon Digivolve to… Kyubimon!"

* * *

Kyubimon gave out an incredibly loud howl of anger. "Fox Tail Inferno!"

Suddenly Kyubimon's nine tails stuck up and was glowing in a blue flame. Suddenly her tails unleashed nine huge streams of blue fire which blasted everything away that was near its shockwaves. IceDevimon was about to fly away but they quickly impacted him causing a huge explosion.

IceDevimon gave out a scream of agonizing pain as the result of the attack completely tore his wings right off and incinerated them. Red light shaped like binary splashed out of where is wings were. This red binary, was Digimon blood.

IceDevimon collapsed onto the ground leaving a pool of blood around him. Everyone looked in shock, but at the same time, excitement. Kyubimon then charged towards IceDevimon and rammed him against the wall, but soon IceDevimon fought back by pushing Kyubimon back. Then he swiftly slashed her sending her a few feet back.

"You BASTERD!" screamed Ice Devimon.

"You're getting what you dished out over the years!" Suddenly Kyubimon began to glow a purplish blue colour. "DRAGON WHEEL!"

Kyubimon jumped up high and began to spin turning herself into a purplish blue fireball. Suddenly a dragon shaped flame grew from the fireball and landed on IceDevimon. IceDevimon gave out an agonizing scream as he disappeared into a bunch of particles; the after shock of the attack blew the wall off.

It literally made a huge hole in the wall and part of the ceiling which was already wide open. The dance room was completely destroyed; but the lucky side was that it was separate from the rest of the school, so there was no major damage to the rest of the school, also no one here liked gym class anyway.

Kyubimon Degenerated back into Viximon who ran up to Rika and jumped into her arms. Rika looked at Viximon proudly. "Viximon! That was incredible!"

"Well that result was higher than expected." said Thomas looking quite surprised.

"Yeah! He destroyed the dance room! I'll admit this is gonna be hard to keep a secret, but this shows Viximon has incredible power!" said Rika.

DemiDevimon flew up and landed onto Thomas's head. "I could've Digivolved too but I wasn't allowed in case someone saw me."

"So does this mean Viximon will be one of the most powerful Digimon?" asked Rika.

"Viximon never beat IceDevimon with raw power alone you know that?" said Thomas.

"Huh? Sure looked like it." said Rika.

"IceDevimon was strong alright… but he was blind… a Tamer isn't a human that makes Digimon stronger, a human isn't a weapon… a Tamer is a Digimon's friend and guardian. We look out for Digimon as they look out for us… a bond of friendship has to be there… otherwise a Tamer is nothing… and the Digimon grow weak." said Thomas.

"So my love for Viximon… gave her the strength to beat IceDevimon?" asked Rika.

"Yes… and since you were with Viximon the day she was born, your bond was so strong… Viximon grew strong." said Thomas. "A Digimon can fight to grow stronger, it can train and even work to become stronger… but if there isn't anyone to defend with that strength… then its all for nothing… I…" he let out a sigh "I once made that mistake myself."

"Y-You did!?" asked Takato feeling surprised.

"I was a fool back then, I believed Digimon was nothing but monsters who battle… and because of that… I lost a very close friend… Takato, Rika… don't ever treat your Digimon the way I once did." said Thomas.

"Of course… who was this friend?" asked Takato.

Thomas let out another sigh "I'm sorry, but I'm just not ready to say… it was too scarring."

They all looked and noticed the snow had stopped.

"IceDevimon caused this didn't he?" asked Rika.

"Yeah… anyway… I must go." After that, Thomas and DemiDevimon disappeared in a binary of light leaving Takato and Rika alone.

"Takato… how can I ever repay you for saving me?" asked Rika.

"You don't have to do anything." said Takato "After all it was Thomas who freed you with his crazy hole blasting idea."

"But you tried your best to save me." said Rika.

"I know… but you don't have to do anything." said Takato.

"What's going on!?" said a teacher's voice.

Rika and Takato turned to see where the voice was coming from. "Oh boy!" said Rika looking nervous.

"Run for it!" Rika and Takato ran off and decided to head home, hoping not to get into any trouble. "Mom's never gonna believe this!" he chuckled.

"I wonder how Hypnos' gonna cover this up?" asked Rika.

"Who knows!" said Takato.

Suddenly the two stopped as Rika sneezed loudly. Takato looked and noticed that her nose was red. "Oh don't tell me"

"Yep… you caught a cold." chuckled Takato.

Rika gave off an irritated sigh as the two took their time walking home. Rika never realised how cruel she was to others until meeting IceDevimon, could she end up with a horrible fate like him too; she just shook the thoughts as she looked at Takato. "Hey Takato?"

"Yeah?"

Rika let out another sneeze "Kazu invited me to play card with him and Kenta tomorrow, you watching?"

"Uhh… really!?" asked Takato.

"Yeah."

"Ha! Like I'm gonna say no?" Rika and Takato continued their way home, Rika began sneezing a few more times. But right now she didn't care, she's just glad this chilling experience was over, and she's still alive.

The end for now


	11. Checking Up

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 11: Checking Up**

In a dark forest, we find five Digimon running from an army of Vilemon. The Digimon were a Palmon, a BlackAgumon, a Gorillamon, a Bakemon and an Impmon. The Digimon quickly cross a rickety bridge, just before the Vilemon cross it, BlackAgumon burns the bridge down with his Pepper Breath attack. But the Vilemon quickly use their wings to fly over, but not far enough as Gorillamon quickly blasts them down into the abyss with his cannon arm.

"Nice shooting." said Impmon looking smug.

"Thanks but there's no time for small talk!" said Gorillamon.

After that the five Digimon ran off towards a tall castle; Impmon quickly blasts the door down with a fireball and the Digimon storm in destroying an army of Vilemon with their attacks. After destroying the army, they come across a split passageway.

"Ok… we can either go left… or right?" asked Bakemon.

"Should we split up?" asked BlackAgumon

Suddenly a huge Ogremon burst through the left side of the passageway. Gorillamon and Impmon shoot at the Ogremon but it didn't do anything; so the five Digimon quickly ran through the other passageway with the Ogremon chasing them.

"If we can't destroy it, what CAN we do!?" asked Bakemon looking panicked.

As the Digimon crossed a wooden floor, they noticed a huge switch up so high no one can reach it. "Maybe that switch might open the floor…" said Gorillamon.

"But its too high for anyone to reach!" said Impmon

"Leave it to me!" Palmon show its vine like claws towards the switch and began to pull it down. Suddenly the wooden floor collapsed down making a huge hole. Then Bakemon created a mist to hide the hole; when Ogremon ran towards them, it didn't notice the hole due to the thick mist and it fell through it.

"That takes care of him!" said BlackAgumon, looking down into the pit.

Palmon nodded "All's left is-" Suddenly the entire area went black., and then they appeared in a throne room where they saw a Myotismon sitting along the throne with a sinister smirk. "The leader…"

"Well now, you've done very well to make it this far… but this is where it ends!" Suddenly Myotismon transformed into a giant demon beast. It was the Mega level VenomMyotismon, all the other Digimon looked up in horror, but Palmon quickly walked up to him.

"You're nothing but a CHEATER!"

VenomMyotismon looked down at Palmon looking quite frustrated "What!? You think I would need to-"

* * *

"Cheat against you!?"

Reality came back. Rika, Takato, Kazu, Kenta, Jeri and Henry were at Takato's house playing a game of 'Dungeons and Digimon'. Rika was Palmon, Takato was BlackAgumon, Kenta was Gorillamon, Jeri was Bakemon, Henry was Impmon and Kazu was Myotismon and the Game Master.

"I don't think, I know!" said Rika. "Every time you went as Game Master, you've always Digivolved into Mega, not to mention we never get any of the Digi-Modify items before facing you."

"Rika's right." said Kenta "After all; since your game master, you decide where the modify items are… and so far you've seen to make it that we can never find them."

"Almost like you've either not put any on the board, or you're lying when we find one." said Henry crossing his arms.

"Aw you're just jealous on how I keep winning." said Kazu looking away with his eyes closed and arms crossed.

"How do we know you're not the jealous one? You've only brought this board game up after I beat you in Digimon cards about ten times in a row." said Rika.

"I did warn you she's the best." said Takato shrugging his shoulders.

"T-That has nothing to do with it!" said Kazu looking back at them.

"Then move that Game Master's cover and lets see where you put the modify items." said Jeri.

"Wh-why should I!?" asked Kazu nervously. Rika sighed in an irritated tone as she lifts up the board covering Kazu's strategies. All the Digi-Modify items weren't on his copy of the board, meaning there were no modify items to get at all, in fact how he's assembled it, it would mean that he would win no matter what. Everyone just glares at the nervous Kazu. "O-Ok… maybe I done a little rigging."

"You're not allowed to be Game Master anymore!" said Kenta.

"Takato! Dinner!"

"Coming mom… well I guess its time to pack up now."

"Yeah, we'll see you later." said Kenta.

After that, Rika packed her stuff and walked out of Takato's house after waving bye, everyone else did the rest; as Rika began to walk home, she thought to herself. For the past two weeks after her incident with IceDevimon, she's been hanging out with Kazu, Kenta and Jeri more.

Being kidnapped by IceDevimon may have been one of the most traumatizing experiences she ever had and she doesn't want that to happen again; but at the same time she was kinda grateful, she was able to see how cold and cruel she was to others and so in a way, she's warmed up to others, also she could end up suffering a similar fate like IceDevimon if she continues to be so heartless, not to mention she was finally able to see Thomas's Digimon, DemiDevimon.

Now that she thought of it, she hasn't seen Thomas since the IceDevimon incident; she's a little concerned actually, he's done so much for her and he has lost a friend when he was cold and cruel too. She's kinda curious who this friend was, but she figured its none of her business. One thing she was curious about was what did Thomas mean by 'he had one million partners'; if he did have one million partners, why did he bring out just one? And what something small and weak like a DemiDevimon?

She then remembered that Thomas gives away the other Digimon to people who are becoming Tamers; who knows, maybe Kazu or Kenta or maybe even Jeri might become Tamers; seems unlikely though, they're all nutcases. But Thomas though, he's kinda mysterious, she's never seen Thomas smile or smirk; in fact the mysterious vibe he seems to emit, its like he's distracted.

When Rika arrived into her room by the slide-away door as usual, she was greeted by Viximon who jumped into her arms. "Hiya Rika!"

"Hey Viximon, were you able to stay out of trouble?"

"Yep."

"Good…"

* * *

About an hour later; Rika had just finished dinner as well as fed Viximon. Its actually been quite difficult feeding Viximon since her mother seems to come out of nowhere and she has to keep Viximon a secret; but she's been able to feed her none the less.

Rika was now in her room unpacking her stuff she brought with her to Takato's house earlier. There wasn't much, just a deck of cards, her new card scanner, a few drinks, a pair of goggles and even her Digivice just in case. Suddenly Rika just realised what she took out of her bag, it was Takato's yellow goggles, she had forgotten that Takato took off his goggles during the invite. "Oh man! I must've packed these by accident, I better return these to him."

"Takato's goggles?" asked Viximon "I don't think I've seen him without them, except during those photo shoots."

"Yeah… y'know, I have no idea how long Takato had these for, no doubt he will miss them." said Rika.

Rika looked at Viximon and noticed she had a smirk on her. Normally she pulls them when it involves something to do with her and Takato. "Dare you to try them on." she said wagging her tail.

"T-Try them on!? No way! Goggles are stupid anyway."

"C'mon, I bet they'll look great on you."

"I don't care! I'm not wearing them!"

"What have you got to lose?"

"My dignity!"

"But no one's here to see you."

"There's you!"

"What would I have to gain by spreading the word, besides, I'm suppose to keep my mouth shut, I'm a Digimon doll remember?"

Rika let out an annoyed sigh. "Alright fine, but if I don't get to live this down, then no choco bars for a month ok?" After that, Rika just sighs once more as she places the goggles onto her head in the same way Takato does, it was a little difficult getting the back strap over her hair but she done it anyway. She looks at Viximon who giggled slightly.

"Think you can pull a pose?"

"Don't push it."

Suddenly a binary of light appeared across the room, there they saw Thomas himself,Rika felt somewhat glad to see him again after a while. But for some reason, the vibe that normally flows around him seems to be a little lighter now, more cheerful, even if he doesn't show the emotion. It was certainly strange. "Thomas? Have you ever hear of knocking?" asked Rika.

"I don't think I can knock before teleporting." said Thomas with a faint smirk.

Rika was a bit confused seeing a smirk from him "What do you want anyway?"

"Nothing much actually." said Thomas "I'm just here to do a little check up on Viximon."

"You mean like a doctor's appointment?" asked Rika.

"Yeah, but we'll need to do it at my lab." said Thomas.

* * *

Meanwhile back at Takato's house, Takato just entered his room where he noticed his unpacked 'Dungeons and Digimon' board game; Takato then packs it up slowly and places it under his bed. "I wonder how Guilmon is doing. I think I'll visit him." He went to pick up his goggles but something wasn't right. "Huh? Where's my goggles?"

* * *

Back to Rika who had entered her back garden with Viximon after telling her mother she'll be gone for a minute or so. As she entered the garden, she noticed Thomas readying his Digivice. To her surprise, it was actually shaped differently compared to hers.

Thomas pointed his Digivice up and she saw nothing but binary flowing around her. Soon she just saw white, she couldn't even see Thomas anymore, she felt a little scared, but the rush she felt from this also made her a little excited as well. Soon the white vision faded and she saw a huge beautiful green field.

The green field went farther than any field Rika had seen before, clear blue skies, beautiful flowers she had never seen before. Everything was beautiful, and it made Rika feel very happy and cheerful on the inside. She noticed Thomas looking the other way, so she turned around and noticed a fence.

Over that fence, to her shock, was over a million Digimon, all between Baby and Rookie levels, there was even a bunch of Digimon eggs. What Thomas said was true, he does own one million more Digimon… maybe even twice that much. "A-Are all these Digimon… yours!?"

"Yep. You see I am a special kind of Tamer… I'm what's known as a Digimon Farmer." said Thomas.

"Farmer?" asked Rika. She suddenly pictured Thomas in typical farming clothing, straw-hat and pitchfork to boot, she let out a faint smirk but was able to hide it.

"The area we're in is called a Digimon Farm, we Digimon Farmers raise small and weak Digimon for new Tamers." said Thomas. "Digimon Farms exist in between the real world and the Digital World, so Digimon Farmers like myself can jump to both worlds easier than most people."

"Hm… that's kinda cool." said Rika. "I wouldn't mind checking out the Digital World sometime."

"I might be able to show you and your friends around sometime in the not-so-distant future." said Thomas. "But for now lets give Viximon her check-up."

Not long later the two entered a doctor's like building connected to his house; where Thomas was examining Viximon with all sorts of machines coming from the ceiling, Thomas soon walked up to Viximon and inserted a needle into her, Rika felt a little queasy as she saw red binary of light enter the needle. When Thomas took it out, he then placed a small bandage over the wound, he then placed the needle into a machine.

"So how long will this take?" asked Rika.

"Not too long. After this I'll just need a Digivolution test." said Thomas.

"What's that?"

"Basically we just need Viximon to Digivolve as high as she can."

"Seems pointless doesn't it? I mean you know she can only go to the Champion Level."

"There's more to it than just seeing what level they can go to, there's quite a bit but it can be a bit complex."

"… Try me."

Thomas lets out a sigh "Very well… when a Digimon Digivolves, it lets off a digital wave. We can scan the binary from the wave to tell how well that Digimon can stay in its Digivolution and how much pressure is put on it. Since Digivolving can take quite a bit of effort if the Digimon is new to Digivolving or it hasn't done it in a while, quite a bit of pressure can grow in them, especially if being forced to Digivolve, so not only do we find out how long a Digimon can stay in its Digivolution for and how much pressure is on it, but we can also find out if there are any problems with the Digivolution and we can even figure out how long it will take for the Digimon to enter the next level… did you get that?"

Rika felt dumbstruck, she barely got any of that at all, not so much as the words, but Thomas did speak a little too quickly; Rika just shook her head feeling embarrassed. She could've sworn she saw Thomas smirk, he soon takes the needle out of the machine and examines the results on a holographic screen. Then he walks up to Rika.

"Now we'll just need to Digivolution test."

"Just don't tell me the details and I'll go for it."

* * *

Later Rika, Viximon and Thomas were outside. Viximon stood perfectly still waiting anxiously for the word. "Ok… now!"

Rika points her Digivice at Viximon and she began to glow in a blue digitized egg.

"Viximon Digivolve too… Renamon!"

Renamon appeared after the digitized egg exploded in a shockwave.

Thomas looks at his Digivice quickly "According to my Digivice, that's a perfectly healthy Digivolution, absolutely no pressure at all… I'm impressed… shows you're a good Tamer… but now lets see Kyubimon"

"No problem!" said Renamon smirking.

"Umm wait a minute…" said Rika.

"What's wrong?" asked Thomas.

"She only Digivolved to Kyubimon once… and she wasn't able to Digivolve to Renamon twice in a row." said Rika.

Thomas nodded "Don't worry… she's matured now, so she should be able to Digivolve to Champion properly."

"Well… ok." Rika pointed her Digivice and Renamon was inside another blue digitized egg.

"Renamon Digivolve too…" An even bigger shock wave came out. "Kyubimon!"

Kyubimon appeared in front of Rika and Thomas. Rika felt quite proud, but once she looked at Thomas's serious face, she then felt like he was going to say something bad.

"Oh boy." muttered Thomas.

"What's wrong?" asked Rika.

"Is something wrong with me?" asked Kyubimon.

"Kyubimon seems to be in quite a bit of stress." said Thomas.

"But I don't feel stressed."

"Normally you wouldn't… this is likely because your new to Digivolving to the Champion level... I suggest you stay out of the Champion Level for a few more days until her data develops to the new Digivolution.

After that, Kyubimon changes back to Viximon as she jumps into Rika's arms. "So there's nothing wrong with Viximon, other than she should wait for a few days before Digivolving to Kyubimon again right?"

"Right, though I do recommend she has a more balanced diet… ok now, its time to get you home." said Thomas.

"Already?" asked Rika.

"Check-ups aren't long." said Thomas "In fact I practically only need you to not only make Viximon comfortable during checkups, but to also control her Digivolutions properly."

After that, Thomas pointed his Digivice in the air and she saw the binary of light again; a little later she was in her back garden again. Then she saw Thomas disappear in the binary of light. Rika walked into her room and placed Viximon on her bed.

"Well that wasn't so bad was it?" asked Rika.

"Except the needle." said Viximon frowning.

"Y-Yeah… except the needle... they're not pleasant." said Rika feeling a bit queasy thinking about it.

"Uhh…"

Rika looked behind her and noticed Takato who looked as if he's seen something incredibly weird.

"Takato? What's up?" asked Rika looking confused.

"Umm… why are you wearing my goggles?" asked Takato.

Rika grew shocked, she just remembered she never took them off. She's worn them all along, and now that Takato's saw her wearing them, she felt incredibly embarrassed as she quickly took them off and threw them to Takato who easily caught them. "D-Don't ask!"

"Well… if you like I can get you a pair." said Takato.

"Huh!?" asked Rika feeling surprised.

"I thought they kinda suited you."

"What!?"

"But y'know, not in yellow… maybe blue or white… maybe even in maroon or cyan."

"N-No thanks! I'm not into goggles!"

"Are you sure? I mean if your not, why did you wear mine?"

Rika let out an annoyed sigh "Viximon convinced me to wear them ok? I was gonna return them to you as soon as I found them!"

"Well… alright… but if you change your mind you know where to find me."

"Believe me… I won't be changing my mind… and sorry for taking them by accident."

"Its ok." Takato just smirked as he turns around readying to leave. "Heh… see ya later… goggle head."

A chuckling Takato walked off leaving Rika embarrassed, she just sat on the floor next to Viximon with her hands covering her bright red face. She sighs annoyingly, that may have been her most embarrassing moment ever. "I swear to god if he leaks this out I'll be shoving those goggles of his up his right nostril! And why the hell didn't Thomas say anything!?"

"So what will you do with your goggles then?" chuckled Viximon as she wagged her tail.

Rika looked down to Viximon nwith an annoyed look "… You do realise since someone saw me with them on, you don't get any choco bars for a month!"

Viximon just moans miserably as Rika began to embarrassingly picture herself wearing blue goggles with Takato, but she quickly shook the thoughts away hoping to never wear another pair of goggles again.

The end for now.


	12. Busted!

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 12: Busted!**

Rika and Takato were in the park; watching Guilmon and Viximon play, luckily not many people come around the area where Guilmon lives so they could relax a little. We find Rika and Takato watching their Digimon from a park bench; it wasn't long later when Henry arrived with Terriermon.

"Hey Henry." said Takato with his typical smile.

"Hey guys, so how are your Digimon doing?" asked Henry.

"Guilmon's ok." said Takato.

"Viximon's doing fine." said Rika.

"That's good… because we have a little problem." said Henry.

Guilmon and Viximon heard this too as they ran up towards their Tamers. "What's wrong?" asked Rika.

"Well… someone may have witnessed the battle in the gym class a few weeks ago." said Henry.

Rika and Takato felt worried, then again not many people would miss a huge explosion created by a Champion level nine tailed fox Digimon. "Do you know who may have witnessed it?" asked Takato.

"Not yet, but I heard a few people claiming they saw a Digimon battle during the school dance, but they said they heard it from someone else." said Henry.

"So that means only a few might have witnessed it, but they're spreading it like wildfire." said Rika.

"Yeah, so I really just came to ask if you could keep your Digimon more of a secret… since you two fled the scene, people think you have something to do with it." said Henry.

Rika and Takato grew a little nervous; they did run off without thinking. "Ok Guilmon, I think its time to stop playing now." said Takato.

"Awwww… but we only had about an hour." moaned Guilmon.

"Takato's right, now that someone knows that Digimon are real, you'll have to keep a low profile for a while. C'mon Viximon, we're going home." said Rika.

"Awwww… oh alright." Viximon jumped into Rika's arms with a disappointed look while Takato takes Guilmon to his concrete home. Rika then gets up from the bench and faces Henry.

"So were you one of the witnesses?" asked Rika.

"Yeah… but I've kept my mouth shut… in fact I also said that it could've been a light bulb exposed to a gas leak." said Henry.

"Good... I think that should help." said Rika.

"Yeah… oh and by the way…" Henry took one step back "Forgive me for asking but… did you wear Takato's goggles?"

Rika's eyes widened in shock "W-What!? W-Who told you!?"

"That's a yes… actually Takato accidentally blurted it out, I just overheard him just when we were about to pass each other."

"Takato's not very tight mouth is he?" chuckled Terriermon.

Rika tipped her head down slightly "I… see… excuse me for a minute." her tone was suddenly intimidating, making Henry's spine Tingle.

Rika walks up to Takato who had just left Guilmon's concrete home; Takato noticed her irritated expression and he grew a little nervous. "Uhh… w-what's wrong?"

Suddenly Rika threw a punch into Takato's gut and he collapsed onto the ground in pain. "You spoke about me wearing your stupid goggles!"

"I-It was an accident! I didn't think anyone heard me!" whimpered Takato.

"Well Henry did!" shouted Rika "I swear to god if this becomes the number one subject in school, you'll have much more than a pain in your gut!"

"Ok! Ok! I'll keep quiet! I promise! Just please don't hit me again!" begged Takato.

Rika smirked as Takato slowly got up rubbing his gut. "Thank you." After that, Rika slowly walked up to Henry, grabbed him by the shirt collar and pulled him closely almost like they were about to kiss; unfortunately Rika's intimidating stare proved it wasn't going to be which made Henry really nervous. "If you tell anyone about me wearing those goggles… an eternity in hell with Satan and all his torturous devices will be nothing compared to half an hour with me and my fists!"

"Y-Yes ma'am!" squeaked Henry. After that, Rika pushed back the terrified Henry and she walked off home. Takato walks up to Henry rubbing his gut in pain, even Terriermon looked scared. "W-What do you see in her!?"

"We're just friends!" said Takato.

* * *

Later Rika arrived at her back garden to rest for a little while, she felt a little bad for hitting Takato, but then again he knew she would find this embarrassing if anyone found out. Especially since that scene could make people think her and Takato are a couple. Which she's obviously getting tired of, she looks down at Viximon who looked a little concerned. "I know Takato's not your lover but did you really have to hurt him? He is your friend!"

"Takato knows that something like this would embarrass me… if he did spread that info, I would never live it down." said Rika "Besides, that was a light tap compared to the other hits I give him."

"Well… if I had a friend who did that to me all the time because of the simplest things, I would just ditch him. Friends don't punch friends." said Viximon

Rika let's out a sigh "I hardly hit him anyway, besides… he does deserve it at times."

"Maybe he's just scared to talk back." said Viximon. Rika looked back down to her "Well… maybe the reason you two are still friends… is because he's too scared to leave you. He might be too scared to complain that your hurting him… think about it… when has he ever complained about you doing bad things to him?"

Rika began to think about it, could Takato really only be her friend because he's scared to say he isn't? Now that Rika thought about it, he's never complained once. "But… but Takato has saved my life at times…"

"Probably because he thinks it's the right thing to do." said Viximon.

Rika became silent, she never said a word for what seemed to be hours; for the rest of the day Rika has been silent, hasn't said a word. Not even a simple "good night" to Viximon, in fact she was mostly awake. With only one question in her mind.

_'Could I truly be… alone?'_

* * *

The next day, Rika arrived at the park, she noticed Takato sitting on a park bench alone. Guilmon must be in his little home; Rika sat down next to Takato and she let Viximon run to Guilmon's home to play. There was an awkward silence between them, she looks towards Takato and noticed he did look upset; of course this made Rika upset too, she just had to say something or she's never gonna live this down. "T-Takato?"

"Yes?"

"I…" Rika sighed once more "I'm really sorry I hurt you yesterday. I lost my temper… and you did say you accidentally said I wore your goggles. I just thought if anyone did know it might've made them think we were a couple or something."

"Its alright. I did deserve it for spilling the beans… I know you are kinda sensitive to these things… and if it makes you feel any better… your not the only girl who wore my goggles… Jeri did too, even a few other girls when I first came to school." said Takato.

"I see… so… you don't mind me hitting you?" asked Rika.

"Well… not really… I mean I've had worse." said Takato.

"I… I was afraid you were gonna say that."

"Huh?"

"I… I'm beginning to think you just hang out with me… because you might be afraid of leaving me in case you get even more hurt." Rika clenched her hands on her knees, feeling tense from saying this.

"Wh-what!? No way, I'll admit your kinda harsh… but you never hit anyone unless its for a good reason."

"But… that last one never had a good reason… especially since you said other girls have worn your goggles…"

"Well you didn't know."

Rika faced Takato once more looking serious "No Takato! I was too hasty, and I hit you for a really stupid reason… now I want you to be completely honest with me… no lies… I want the truth, and I promise I will not hurt you."

"Um… o-ok?"

"Do you really think of me as a friend… or do you just hang out with me because your scared to admit the truth? And I don't want to hear any lies, I want the truth… and if I don't hear the truth… I'm afraid I might not be able to trust you anymore."

Takato looked quite concerned, almost as if he really wanted Rika's trust "Umm… ok… the truth." he lets out a sigh "I…"

Rika was almost afraid of hearing what Takato's about to say; deep down, the one thing she hates more than anything… is to be alone.

"You may hurt me and I don't like it too much… but I know deep down your not as cold as they say… I'll admit you were as cold as ice when we first met… but I could just tell you were lonely of sorts."

"Did… you really think that?"

"Of course… I'm a bad liar anyway. that's why I asked you to train me." said Takato "Not only would you have a friend, I would be better at Digimon cards. I figured it was a win-win thing."

"… And… that's the truth?"

"I promise you it's the truth. I have a bad habit of trying to help people."

"That I'm aware of." Rika slowly shook her head.

"So I decided to help you… I knew you needed some sort of company, and I was right, and I figured why you were a bit of a lone wolf"

"What do you mean?"

"I found out you lost your dad long ago. You told me yourself, when your dad left, you became so cold to protect yourself…" Takato looked down onto his knees "So because of that, I've decided I wanted to help you however I can, if being your friend was the best solution, then why not… I guess I have a habit of sticking my nose where it doesn't belong huh? So while I don't like getting hit, I'll willingly take a few for the sake of helping you and being your friend."

Takato looks back at Rika and noticed she was about to cry again; Takato looked a little nervous. "D-Did I upset you?"

Suddenly Rika just hugged Takato, his face went bright red feeling both surprised and embarrassed, this was the first time Rika had ever hugged him. But he knew Rika was incredibly grateful; Takato hugged back to comfort her. "T-Thank you!"

"Don't worry about it. I promised I wouldn't leave… and I'll stick to it." said Takato.

Rika and Takato continued their hug for a little longer until Takato actually tried to pull Rika off. "W-What are you-"

"Kazu!"

Rika quickly reacted to this and shot off Takato and the two went back to their seating position, they noticed Kazu, Kenta and Jeri walking up to them and by the looks of it, they haven't noticed. "Hey love birds." said Kazu.

"How many times do we have to say that we're just friends?" said Rika as she glared at Kazu.

"I know, its just the fact that the two of you are sitting on the same bench." said Kazu.

"What's wrong with that, there's room for three people." said Takato. "We can't talk to each other if we're on two separate benches. Especially since the next nearest bench is on the other side of the park."

"Can we just get to the point Kazu?" asked Jeri.

"Yeah! I'm suppose to be doing homework until you dragged me out here." said Kenta.

"It couldn't be cooler… remember the gym blowing up?" said Kazu facing Jeri and Kenta.

"Yeah, a gas leak plus a light bulb." said Kenta. "Good thing the fire alarm went off or we would've been toast."

Kazu looked back to Rika and Takato. "Well… from what I heard, kids actually saw Digimon in that gym after the explosion. And these two ran off after the explosion. That seems suspicious doesn't it?" Takato and Rika stood up looking a little nervous. "These two are somehow involved with real life Digimon."

"Is that hat of yours on too tight?" asked Rika looking annoyed "You only heard from what other kids said… not to mention Digimon is just a franchise."

"Rika's right, its just cards, toys, video games and even an anime." said Takato.

"Yeah? Well explain me this… in the past seven or eight months you've been going to this park everyday and towards that concrete cage thingy. Why?" asked Kazu.

"Well I guess that's true… maybe it's just his secret base." said Jeri.

"Y-Yeah that's what it is! A secret base!" said Takato.

"And what about Rika?" asked Kazu.

"What about me?" asked Rika.

"For about a month or two, I've seen you carry around a doll of what I think is a Viximon…" said Kazu.

"The In-Training level of Renamon, your favourite Digimon?" asked Kenta

"Its just a doll Takato got me… nothing special." said Rika.

"But why would you want a doll? Seems unlike you at all." said Kazu.

"Well… I did feel a little embarrassed about taking it, but hey, might as well take it since Takato has done a lot for me." said Rika.

"I would've gotten her a Renamon doll but they were sold out." said Takato.

"Well that's too bad. But about this little base… could we see it?" asked Kazu.

Both Takato and Rika said "No!" at the exact same time. The three got a little surprised to hear them both answer that question.

"So BOTH of you are hiding something!" said Kazu pointing at Rika, but quickly moved his finger back right before Rika could bite it.

"Hello? It's a secret base, its suppose to be secret." said Jeri.

"Then why would pineapple head here know about it and not us?" asked Kazu.

"Ok... you've been hanging around with Jess haven't you?" asked Rika.

"Lets just go Kazu… it doesn't matter if Rika knows about it and we don't." said Kenta.

"Yeah… its probably a little love base anyway." chuckled Jeri.

Rika and Takato blushed once again. "Is not!" said Takato.

"Then why does Rika know about it? Its like you two go there!" said Kazu.

"I've never been inside Takato's stupid base you dunce… I just come here to talk to him." said Rika.

Suddenly everyone heard a loud thud coming from the concrete home. Kazu, Kenta and Jeri ran past Rika and Takato and towards the concrete house; Rika and Takato quickly followed

"What was that?" asked Kazu.

Suddenly they saw two small lights coming from the base like eyes while hearing slow breathing. Kazu, Kenta and Jeri stood there terrified while Rika and Takato looked nervous.

Suddenly a loud gust of wind shot from the base which knocked the five kids onto the ground; Kazu Kenta and Jeri looked even more terrified, suddenly Viximon flew from the gust of wind and in front of Rika who she quickly picked up.

"Oh man that was gross! Why did you have to sneeze Guilmon!?" asked Viximon.

Guilmon walked out of the cage. "Sorry Viximon, your tail tickled my nose."

Suddenly there was an awkward silence as Kazu, Kenta and Jeri noticed Guilmon and heard Viximon; Rika and Takato felt very worried, their secret was exposed by a sneeze

"G-G-Guilmon!? A real life Guilmon!?" exclaimed Kazu.

"And Rika's doll talked!" exclaimed Kenta "T-That's a real Viximon!"

"Takato and Rika have real life Digimon!?" asked Jeri looking shocked.

Rika and Takato quickly jumped up and looked at the three kids in panicked state "Please don't tell **ANYONE!**"

The other kids got up. "Some friend you are Takato! Why on earth were you hiding something like that you goggle head!?" asked Kazu.

"That's what **I **call Takato!" said Rika.

"Sorry! But we had no choice. We're told to keep our Digimon a secret to those who don't have one." said Takato.

"And who the heck told you that?! No ones the boss of you!" said Kazu.

"Its Thomas!" said Rika "The European boy Jeri calls him…"

"That four-eyed dork! Now why should you take orders from him?!" asked Kazu.

"Thomas is the one who gave us our Digimon!" said Takato.

"He works for the organization that gives Digimon to people." said Rika.

Kazu stepped back a bit "What!?"

"So is Thomas a spy or something?" asked Jeri.

"No he just gives us Digimon and advice on how to raise them." said Rika "Besides, if we did show our Digimon to the public, there would probably be a catastrophe. People will think they're monstrosities and try to run experiments on them, or worse, kill them! So how about maybe thinking about why we had to keep them a secret instead of thinking we hated you or something!"

The three became silent as they looked at one another, feeling a bit bad for what they said "Wow… we're sorry." said Kenta.

"Y-Yeah… but you could've told us anyway, we would've kept it a secret." said Kazu.

"Kazu your as tight mouthed as a parrot." said Takato.

"And if it makes you feel any better… Takato never told me about Guilmon until I got Viximon." said Rika.

"Well I gotta say… Guilmon is very cute." chuckled Jeri.

"C-Cute!? You mean cool right!?" asked Takato.

"Well… look in any case, now that you know about our Digimon, you need to keep quiet about this! If someone suspicious finds out about this, we could all be in trouble!" said Rika.

"Yep! Go keep your mouths shut!" said Viximon with a big smirk.

Kazu slowly looked at Viximon, and then back to Rika. "Sure… one thing though… is Viximon… like your baby or something?"

Rika began to blush, she just slowly looks down at Viximon. "Well… I did get her as an egg… so I suppose that would be pretty accurate."

"So since Rika's practically a mother to her Digimon, that's why she seems to have gotten nicer." said Kenta

Kazu and Jeri looked at Kenta, then at Rika who still felt a little embarrassed. "F-Fine! So the Ice Queen is warming up because she a mother! So what!? You'd be the same if you had to raise your Digimon as babies!"

"So lemme guess, if we say anything about you warming up because you're a mother now, you'll tear us apart right?" asked Kazu.

"In more ways than one, I may be warming up but I'm still the same girl who could beat the crap outta all three of you." said Rika. Making all three of them step back.

"Ok… well… we'll be going now." said Kazu.

"Yeah… I gotta get back to my homework." said Kenta.

"Yeah… I'll see you guys later." said Jeri.

After that, Kazu, Kenta and Jeri walked off leaving Rika and Takato alone, who quickly slump to the ground feeling relieved and yet embarrassed as well. Guilmon just walked up to them. "So we can trust them Takatomon?"

"Yeah boy…" said Takato.

"That was kinda close." said Viximon.

"Lets just hope the same thing doesn't happen with Jess." said Rika.

"Yeah… that'll be a nasty scene." said Takato.

Rika and Takato slowly got back up and she places down Viximon to play with Guilmon, then they both walk back onto the bench and decided to rest a bit. Now that Kazu, Kenta and Jeri know about this, how long will it take until they slip up and they're Digimon are revealed? Rika just mostly hope the three kids don't treat her differently because now that they know she's mothering her Digimon.

The end for now.


	13. Haunting Love

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 13: Haunting Love**

It was the beginning of October. Therefore, Halloween is the number one subject in school; Rika actually enjoyed Halloween, she loved the spooky atmosphere that goes around, she wouldn't dress up for trick or treating or anything like that; but she still enjoys Halloween. Not to mention Rika secretly has a sweet tooth, of course she never said this to anyone but she thinks Takato might have a hint.

We find Rika waiting outside for Takato once more, she wasn't too bothered about Takato taking a while this time, she did enjoy to see the leaves falling from the trees; of course this happens a lot in August and September, but during October it felt more right. It wasn't long until Takato and Henry walked out of the school, Rika noticed that Takato was wearing something over his goggles. It was a Guilmon cap.

Rika sighed as she knows exactly what its for. "Don't tell me your going trick or treating."

"Yep!" said Takato cheerfully "Aren't you?"

"No way! The only time I wear something ridiculous is when I'm doing photo shoots for my mother's stupid magazine."

"Well whatever." said Takato, he then faces Henry "Are you going?"

"Yeah, I have to take my little sister trick or treating anyway."

Henry noticed someone while Rika and Takato didn't, near a tree was a beautiful young girl about twelve-years old, she wore a long white dress and had long flowing golden hair, she had crystal blue eyes and cute white slippers. Henry immediately ran down the set of stairs to get a better look at the girl, his face was bright red and it almost looked as if his eyes had just turned into hearts.

"Woah! What a knock out!"

Suddenly the rest of the students who were also held back ran out of the door running Henry over. Rika and Takato jumped out of the way in time; then they both look as the trampled Henry, he had footprint marks all over him like in those old cartoons.

"You ok?" asked Takato.

"I think so." Henry slowly gets back up and saw that the beautiful girl was gone; he then looks at Rika and Takato who both looked confused.

"What's with you?" asked Rika.

"Uhh… D-Did you two see a beautiful girl in a white dress just by that tree?" Henry points to said tree.

"No." said Rika.

"I didn't see anything." said Takato.

"A-Are you sure…?" asked Henry.

"Of course I'm sure." said Rika.

"It would be hard to miss a girl in a white dress around here." said Takato looking around.

Rika and Takato then walk off, Henry was silent for a minute until he gets up and follows the others.

* * *

Later today, Rika was sitting at the park bench holding Viximon, she was waiting for Takato to come back from feeding Guilmon. She then noticed Kazu and Kenta walking up to her, so she stood up to greet them.

"Hey Rika, have you seen Jeri anywhere?" asked Kazu.

"Not since lunch time." said Rika.

As Rika and Kazu's conversation continued for a bit. Kenta noticed something while Rika and Kazu didn't. It was the same beautiful girl that Henry saw earlier, she was standing by a different tree in the same pose as last time, Kenta's face turned red and had heart eyes. "Wow! She's super cute!"

Suddenly Kazu punched Kenta in the arm to snap him out of his daydream. "C'mon Kenta, Henry's challenging us to a card battle today and I don't wanna miss it."

"Oh right." Kenta looks back and saw that the girl was gone; then he looks towards Rika. "Did you by any chance see a cute girl in a white dress?"

"No… Henry asked that question a while ago actually."

"Oh right… oh well." After that, Kazu and Kenta walk off; then Rika looks at Viximon who seemed concerned.

"I think I saw a white dressed girl before." said Viximon.

"Really? When?" asked Rika.

"Hmm… I think it was outside the house… but after I blinked, she was gone." said Viximon.

"Hmm… maybe there is a girl in a white dress." muttered Rika as she looked towards the tree Kenta was looking at.

* * *

The next day, Rika and Takato were at Thomas's house, which turned out to be connected to the medical room, he was giving Guilmon a check up as well. "So how's he doing?"

"So far just fine" said Thomas as he leans back up after a quick look at some data on a computer. "A few minor injuries but he's doing ok."

"So you actually live in the Digital World?" asked Rika, though felt like it was an obvious question.

"Can't be a Digimon farmer if I don't live on my farm right?" said Thomas pushing his glasses up.

"Good point…"

"So I guess your not aware of much that goes on in the human world right?" asked Takato.

"I get the necessary updates." said Thomas as he looked back to his computer screen "Such as this one interesting little thing."

"What's that?" asked Rika.

"A few kids said that they saw a young girl in a white dress." said Thomas who turns back to them "But once their eyes were moved away from her, she disappears."

"Hey, Henry mentioned something like that." said Takato facing Rika.

"Kenta did as well." said Rika.

"Hmm… interesting… and you two haven't?" asked Thomas.

"Nope."

"Not yet."

"Well… I got this report a few days ago actually, so I asked your friend Jeri to come with me." said Thomas as he moved some of the machinery hanging from the ceiling further up so Guilmon could get off the examination table.

"Jeri!? Why?" asked Takato feeling confused.

"According to her, she also saw a girl in a white dress… making her the only female to see her." said Thomas.

"And you think this is kinda suspicious?" asked Rika.

"Jeri being the only girl out of forty who saw a girl in a white dress… yep." said Thomas. "So I asked her what she saw in full detail, in return I've signed out an application form for her to have a Digimon."

"So… Jeri's gonna be a Tamer?" asked Rika feeling surprised.

"Yep… but that won't be for a while now." said Thomas. "I'll be jumping down to the human world for a little investigation about this white dressed girl later."

* * *

Later on at night, Rika was sleeping until she heard something; it was a knock at her slide-away door. She slowly gets out of bed leaving Viximon asleep, as she opens her slide-away door, there was the same girl wearing a white dress standing near a tree in her garden; she was surprised to see that the girl was real, Rika slowly walked towards her. "Who are you?"

The girl was silent, instead she just shown a sweet smile; Rika felt a little nervous, her smile may be cute, but… something about it made her uneasy; she just takes two steps backwards. "Well…?"

"You have many boyfriends." said the girl in a somewhat sinister echoed voice.

"W-What!? No I don't!" exclaimed Rika in a surprised tone "They're just boys who I hang out with! Just friends!"

The girl simply smiled at her "Exactly what I meant."

"W-Whatever… but who are you?" said Rika calming down a little.

The girl began to chuckle, strangely enough, her chuckle sounded… possessed; Rika took a few more steps back starting to feel really nervous. "You wouldn't mind… if I take a few do you?"

"W-What!? What are you talking about!?"

"I… don't have any friends… may I please have some of your friends?"

Rika began to calm down a little more feeling confused "Uhh… look you can't exactly take them like they're just toys or something… but if you don't have any friends… I guess you could hang out with us…"

The girl began to demonically chuckle once more; Rika began to step back even more until she bumped into something, she looked behind her and to her shock. It was the same girl; then she looks forward and noticed that she wasn't by the tree; she quickly jumped back feeling really scared now. She knew that this girl wasn't normal. "W-What the hell are you!?"

"**I don't think you've heard me properly!**" The girl placed her hands on Rika's shoulders and pulled her closer; she felt really scared now. Especially since the girl's eyes turned black and red, bared fangs and her skin became pale white while her dress became black. "**I want some of your friends… and I don't like to hear a 'no'!"**

The girl began to chuckle even more, the longer she laughed, the more demonic and darker it became. Rika then just screamed out loud feeling like she was going to die.

Suddenly Rika shot up throwing her blanket off her, her face was completely sweating from fear and her heart was racing. It was all a dream. Rika just sighs with relief, but she knew one thing. That girl in the white dress is definitely not human, she looks at Viximon who was looking at her concerned. "Are you alright Rika?"

"Y-Yeah I'm fine… its just a bad dream. Lets just go back to sleep." Rika pulls the blanket over her and Viximon and they immediately fell back to sleep. Though Rika pretended to sleep for a little while, she knows one thing that could be troublesome… Henry and Kenta are in danger.

* * *

The next morning, Rika and Takato was just leaving Takato's bakery and heading towards the park. Rika was also feeding Viximon a small pastry while Takato was getting some bread ready to feed Guilmon. As they made it to the park, they noticed that Guilmon's home had wooden slabs over it. "Guilmon? what's with the new door?" he asked while looking around it.

"Takatomon!" The three look and notice that Guilmon is hiding in the bushes; he actually looked terrified.

"Guilmon? What are you doing in the bushes?" asked the confused Takato.

"Some creepy girl in white invaded my home." said Guilmon as he climed out of the bushes "She scared me out of it so I waited here for her to leave… but I guess I overslept."

"Girl in a white dress? Y'know, I had the creepiest dream about her." said Rika as she faced Takato.

"You did!?"

"Yeah! She said she wanted some of our friends."

Suddenly Thomas appeared in a binary of light; he slowly walked up to Guilmon's home and he began pulling at the wooden slabs.

"Thomas? What are you doing?" asked Rika.

"Wait and see!" Rika, Takato and Guilmon walked up to Thomas. When Thomas ripped the slabs off, suddenly two figures fell out of it.

"Henry!"

"Kenta!"

Henry and Kenta were dazed and were blue in the face, like they were lacking air. What was creepy though was that they were giggling like a bunch of goofy idiots.

"What happened to them?" asked Viximon leaning out of Rika's arms slightly.

"I did my research… apparently who ever sees this girl ends up becoming trapped somewhere and when found, they become like this for a few hours." said Thomas waving his hand to Henry and Kenta.

"What is that girl anyway? Is she a ghost!?" asked Rika.

"Yeah." said Thomas nodding.

"I real life ghost!?" asked Guilmon walking a bit closer.

"Yeah" Thomas soon let out a sigh "… No doubt she will come back for them."

"What do we do?" asked Rika.

"Simple."

* * *

Later after Henry and Kenta were out of their unusual states; Rika, Viximon, Takato, Guilmon, Thomas and DemiDevimon were putting Ghost Prevention Talismans over Henry, Kenta and around Guilmon's home inside and outside. Rika was quite familiar with them as her grandparents would often have them around their chicken coop.

"Uhh… what are you doing exactly?" asked Henry.

"I figured you would know what Ghost Prevention Talismans are, after all they are from your land." said a smug DemiDevimon. "They keep the spirits away, if you guys just wear these for just one night, that ghost girl shouldn't come."

"Wait! That girl was a ghost!?" asked Kenta looking surprised.

"A very scary one too."

"N-No way, I don't buy it." muttered Henry looking away.

"Then explain to me why you were at Guilmon's house giggling like an idiot after seeing a girl that only you saw?" asked Rika "She disappeared into thin air after you took one second away from looking at her, how can you say she's not a ghost?"

Henry looks back at Rika "Maybe she's just shy and your short sighted."

Rika sighs with annoyance, then replies by slapping a talisman over Henry's mouth shutting him up. After about two or three more minutes, the talismans were all over. The gang went outside except Henry and Kenta.

"Ok… I'm gonna need you guys to stay here and watch over them." said Thomas pushing his glasses up. "Without supervision they could end up being taken by the ghost again. I don't know how strong those talismans are."

"What about you? Aren't you gonna help us in this?" asked Rika looking back at Guilmon's home.

"I… I have a personal mission from Hypnos to do. I won't be able to aid you in this…" Rika felt that Thomas was distracted; it was almost as if he wanted to avoid this, in fact every time the girl was mentioned, he seemed as if he was upset. But she knew that's none of her business so she just nods.

"Fine…"

"Let us know how it turns out." said DemiDevimon as he landed on Thomas's head.

After that, Thomas and DemiDevimon disappear in a binary of light once more. They then turned to Henry and Kenta who still looked confused.

"I'll go get some supplies… we're gonna be here for a while no doubt." said Takato.

"Yeah… overnight." said Rika.

* * *

Many hours later; Takato and Rika were able to fool their parents plus Henry and Kenta's parents by saying they're gonna campout. Although it was suppose to be a stakeout for a ghost, it ended up becoming a campout anyway; though they didn't have a fire, Guilmon became a substitute by cooking the food with his Pyro Sphere attack; even Takato provided ghost stories, which never fazed Rika but terrified everyone else, Takato even slightly scared himself which Rika did find humorous.

It was about 11:00 when everyone had fallen asleep. But once the clock struck 12:00. Something happened, everyone woke up from a huge light which shot out from outside Guilmon's home.

"What the hell!?" grunted Rika as she blocked the light with her right arm.

"What's going on!?" exclaimed Takato as he shot up.

Suddenly Henry and Kenta began to float up, they began to panic trying to get back onto the ground.

"These talismans aren't working!" shouted the panicked Henry.

"HELP!" screamed Kenta.

Henry and Kenta began to float out of Guilmon's home, but not until Takato, Guilmon and Rika grabbed onto the two. Then Viximon immediately Digivolved into Renamon and she helped hold onto Henry and Kenta; but all four of them lost their grip and Henry and Kenta were dragged out of Guilmon's home. When the others ran out, they noticed the ghost girl appeared when the light died down, Henry and Kenta floated over her as she began to chuckle demonically.

"She's here!" exclaimed Rika.

"Wow! She really is cute!" said the mezmerized Takato.

Rika glared at Takato which made him feel a little nervous. "Our friends are being abducted by a ghost girl and your only reaction is how she looks!?"

The girl looked down at the two smiling deviously "I told you I wanted some of your friends… and now I'm taking them… but don't worry… you can have some of my friends." Suddenly an army of fiery spirits flew out from behind her as a whirlwind shot from the ground; the girl now began to laugh demonically which echoed loudly.

"What kind of Digimon are these!?" asked Takato as he dodged one of the spirits, he takes out his Digivice and points it at one of the spiralling fiery spirits, but it came up with 'no Digimon in sight'. This worried all four of them greatly.

"T-There not Digimon!?" asked the nervous Rika.

The four duck as a few fiery sprits tried to attack them. Just as they did, Takato's Digivice beeped slightly, indicating there is a Digimon in the area; Rika and Takato began to look around pointing their Digivices in any random area, but the Digivice activated just as Rika pointed it towards the ghost girl. "Soulmon!? A Champion Level!?"

"Wait!? So that ghost girl… is really a ghost Digimon!?" asked Takato.

The girl began to laugh as the spirits disappeared, the whirlwind stopped and Henry and Kenta fell down flat on their faces. "You're pretty clever… I'm not just a pretty face who wants a friend…I am…" Suddenly the girl was encased in a white digitized egg and reappeared as a large floating ghost creature with a witch's hat. "Soulmon! Fear me suckers!"

"W-Wait!? I fell for an ugly looking ghost!?" exclaimed Henry. Soulmon cackled loudly making Henry and Kenta run away from it and behind the other four.

"And now you will all face my WRATH!" Suddenly the Soulmon grew bigger; it was now about fifteen feet tall and was ready to breath out blue fire.

"Get ready Guilmon!"

"Its time to fight Renamon!"

Guilmon and Renamon immediately began to Digivolve into Growlmon and Kyubimon, they both tackle Soulmon sending her a few feet back. But she quickly breaths out a blue flame which blasts back Growlmon and Kyubimon; but they quickly get back up. Growlmon and Kyubimon blast their flame attacks at Soulmon sending her a few more feet back, but soon Soulmon knocked away their attacks. Then Soulmon releases a huge bunch of spirits which began to attack Guilmon and Kyubimon in all directions.

"Kyubimon! Try Dragon Wheel!" called Rika.

Kyubimon quickly jumps up and was covered in a blue flame. As Kyubimon span around in a blue flame, a dragon shaped flame shot out and attacked Soulmon. After a huge explosion, Soulmon was tiny again; she slowly floated up looking annoyed as Growlmon and Kyubimon Degenerated back into Guilmon and Viximon.

"Alright I'll give you credit, your tough! But we will meet again and that time! The outcome will be different!" After that, Soulmon disappeared in a puff of smoke. Then Henry and Kenta ran up to the four.

"Thanks a lot" said Henry rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah! We could've been ghost food to that thing! We owe you one!" said the relieved Kenta.

"Aw it was nothing." said the cheery Guilmon.

"Yep!" said the cheery Viximon before yawning "I'm tired."

"Yeah… I think we all are." said Rika. After that, the gang went back into Guilmon's home to continue their sleep

Meanwhile back in Thomas's home, he was in the lab scanning blue cards. That was until Soulmon appeared; Thomas looks back to Soulmon... There was a strong silence.

The end for now.


	14. The Egg Hunt

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 14: The Egg Hunt**

It was a peaceful day. A Digimon hasn't Bio-Emerged in a while; so this gave Rika and Takato some time to visit Henry. Although Suzie doesn't know about real Digimon yet, so she was playing with Terriermon and Viximon thinking their dolls; Rika was a little nervous in case Suzie does something to make Viximon react. But so far, the only thing Suzie has done was dress them up; Rika, Takato and Henry were talking from the dining room while Suzie was in the other room, this way Rika can keep an eye on Viximon.

"Does Suzie do that often?" asked Rika watching them from the corner of her eye.

"She does it to every doll she owns…including Terriermon… which is pretty funny to see the look on his face." said Henry pulling a small smile.

"Imagine if she tried to dress up Guilmon." said Takato, he couldn't help but let off a slight chuckle.

"She'd be lucky enough to find cloths that fit Guilmon." chuckled Henry.

"Do you think we should tell her about real Digimon?" asked Takato facing Henry.

"Not a good idea. Suzie loves to tell people information she finds out… as soon as 'real Digimon' reaches her ears. She'll be telling everyone she sees." said Henry facing Takato.

"Good point."

"I remember Thomas telling us Jeri will be a Tamer soon." said Rika "I wodner if Suzie will become the same?"

"She is a bit young for that, but if I see Thomas I'll ask what the chances are." said Henry.

Suddenly their Digivices began to beep indicating another Digimon has Bio-Emerged.

"Well… its time to send another Digimon back home." said Rika.

* * *

After getting Terriermon and Viximon away from Suzie (somehow). Rika, Takato and Henry were walking to the park to pick up Guilmon; to their surprise they saw someone digging into the bushes, only his legs could be seen; but they recognised his voice as soon as he yelled out. "OW! Damn thorns!"

"Thomas?" Rika asked.

Thomas pulled himself out of the bushes holding a strange object. It was a white and purple shaped item with a grey cross through it. And on his back was a huge bag which doesn't seem to contain much. "Hey guys." he said in his typical serious tone.

"What's that thing in your hand?" asked Takato pointing to it.

"Oh this…? It's an Armour Digi-Egg." said Thomas holding it up slightly. Basically it allows certain Digimon to Armour Digivolve. I believe you've heard of Armour Digivolution.

"Well yeah but… aren't they suppose to be legendary one of a kind items or something?" asked Rika tilting her head slightly.

"In fiction yes. But in reality they're as common as books… Digimon farmers such as myself keep a ton of these eggs for experimental Digivolution." said Thomas as he places the Armour Egg in the bag.

"Cool! Am I able to Armour Digivolve?" asked the excited Terriermon.

"I haven't tested your type yet. But right now I'm getting them back." said Thomas, that time he sounded somewhat annoyed.

"What happened?" asked Takato.

"Three of my Digimon back at the farm grew a little mischief, they began to mess around in my lab and they warped themselves to the human world along with nine different Armour Digi-Eggs. so I'm trying to get the eggs back and find those mischievous Digimon." said Thomas.

"I guess that explains our Digivices going off. How many have you got?" asked Rika.

"So far five. I've got the Digi-Eggs of Reliability, Courage, Knowledge, Hope and Light. I'm missing the Digi-Eggs of Friendship, Love, Sincerity and Kindness.

"Can we help?" asked Viximon looking excited.

"We might as well. That is if you don't mind." said Rika.

"I don't see why not… I know their locations so it can shorten the amount of time to find them." said Thomas.

"Great, so where are they?" asked Henry.

Thomas took out his Digivice and looked at it "Lets see… one is in Guilmon's home so I can get that, one is in the kids playground just next to the park, one is by the junkyard, and the last one is in the streets just east from here. I can set your Digivices to search for the Digi-Eggs. You'll know when you've found one."

After that, the Digivices were set and each Tamer went to look for the remaining Digi-Eggs; Henry was in the kids park, he looked at his Digivice carefully until he found himself not far from a tree, he looked up and there he saw the Digi-Egg of Kindness, it was simply shaped like the head of a rose. Henry took Terriermon off of his shoulder and began to climb up the tree, as he reached for the Digi-Egg, he noticed a squirrel climb down onto the same branch the Digi Egg was on and it stared at Henry for a bit.

"Um… hello?" muttered Henry. He liked squirrels but seeing one stared at him somehow gave him a bad feeling.

He was right, suddenly an entire mob of squirrels jumped down and tackled Henry onto the ground and began to attack him. Terriermon couldn't help but roll on the ground laughing.

Meanwhile, Takato was on one side of the street, he noticed the Digi-Egg of Love which was silver, had bladed wins and a heart crest on it. Unfortunately it was in the middle of an extremely busy road; cars shot from left to right like bullets; Takato was waiting by the zebra crossing where the Digi-Egg was, he pressed the traffic button at least two thousand times and the cars still show no sign of slowing down, in fact they looked as if they sped up. "Yyyeah…. I'm gonna be here for a while… unless…" Takato looks around for anything that could help him cross the street.

Meanwhile Rika had just entered the junkyard; she noticed in the middle of a huge pile was the Digi-Egg of Friendship, it was long and was blue and black, it also had a spike on the front. Rika placed Viximon down near the pile. "Stay here Ok?"

Viximon nodded before Rika began to climb the trash. Luckily the Digi-Egg wasn't very high up so Rika didn't have to climb far, which was a relief as the horrible smell of the junk was burning Rika's nose, but obviously she couldn't plug it since she needs both her hands to climb.

As Rika made it to the Digi-Egg, she grabbed it with one hand and slowly pulled at it, hoping not to pull too hard and ending up falling back. She was finally able to pull it out, and she quickly climbed down where she saw Viximon jumping for joy. "You did it!"

"Yeah... That wasn't so bad." Suddenly their smiles soon turned to shock as they began to hear a rumble, they then looked up at the pile of trash Rika climbed up on. Unfortunately that Digi-Egg was the pile of trash's 'key stone' "Oh CRAP!"

* * *

Later on; Takato, Henry and Rika made it back to the park and were heading towards Guilmon's home with their Digi-Eggs successfully obtain. Takato had a rope around his right shoulder to his waist, Rika and Viximon were emitting a strong smell of garbage and rotten stuff, and Henry had bite marks all over him. Rika and Takato looked at Henry, and Terriermon who was giggling.

"So… what happened to you?" asked Rika who felt awkward seeing Henry like that.

"I don't wanna talk about it." said Henry who looked away.

"And what about you Rika?" asked Takato.

"I kinda don't wanna talk about it either." said Rika who looked away as well.

"I could use a bath." mumbled the upset looking Viximon.

"Wow… I guess my luck went a bit smoother." said Takato smiling a bit.

"So what's with the rope around you?" asked Henry looking back to Takato.

"Oh that… well I couldn't get across the street… so I went for a smarter plan." said Takato moving the rope up.

Rika began to picture what he meant. She's guessing Takato pulled the Digi-Egg in using that rope as a lasso.

As they arrived at Guilmon's home, they noticed Thomas and Guilmon; Guilmon was lying on his back while Thomas was taking deep breaths. Before anyone could ask, Thomas pile drove his elbow into Guilmon's gut causing him to spit out something green and had a ninja star under it, it was the Digi-Egg of Sincerity. Thomas then catches it before it lands on the ground. But he had the look of disgust in his face, which was no surprise, considering its covered in Guilmon's saliva and stomach acid. "Ok, Takato…? Don't ever let anything as important as these near Guilmon while he's hungry."

"R-Right… sorry."

After that, Rika, Takato and Henry placed the four Digi-Eggs into Thomas's bag. "That's all of them. Now alls left is the Bio-Emerged Digimon-"

Suddenly three small creatures rammed themselves into Thomas knocking him down. Because of that, the Digi-Eggs of Friendship, Sincerity and Kindness fell out of the bag; suddenly the creatures picked them up revealing themselves as a Veemon, a Hawkmon and an Armadillomon. They quickly ran off.

Thomas slowly got up grunting a bit in pain "Those are the Digimon that scattered the Digi-Eggs in the first place." Thomas quickly gets up and holds onto the bag. "I can't risk any more Digi-Eggs being separated again. Can you get those stolen ones back while I return these back to my farm?"

"No problem." said Takato giving him the thumbs up.

"Thanks." After that, Thomas disappeared in a binary of light as Rika, Takato and Henry dashed off to find the three Digimon.

"Viximon, you better Digivolve just in case." said Rika.

"Right!"

After that, Rika threw Viximon into the air and immediately Digivolved into Renamon who landed down gracefully and ran with the others. As they bolted around the corner where the three Digimon ran to, they came across a large open area; Veemon was holding the Digi-Egg of Sincerity, Hawkmon was holding the Digi-Egg of Friendship and Armadillomon was holding the Digi-Egg of Kindness.

"Ok you three. Its time to return home now." said Rika looking annoyed.

"Its time for you to go home, now please put the Digi-Eggs down." said Takato.

The three Digimon just smirked. Suddenly the three Digi-Egg's began to glow; then the three Digimon were encased in digitized eggs shaped like the Digi-Eggs there were holding.

"Uh-oh!" muttered Guilmon.

"They're Armour Digivolving!?" exclaimed Rika.

"Quick! You gotta Digivolve too!" said the panicked Henry.

* * *

**ARMOUR DIGIVOLUTION**

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"Veemon Armour Digivolve to…"

"Renamon Digivolve to…"

"Hawkmon Armour Digivolve to…"

"Guilmon Digivolve to…"

"Armadillomon Armour Digivolve to…"

"Terriermon Digivolve to…"

After a huge shockwave. The six newly Digivolved Digimon appeared. Veemon was now an unusual warrior Digimon with wooden swords and a white mask, Hawkmon was a blue spiky warrior like Digimon with blades on his feet and Armadillomon was now a chameleon wearing a war helmet and armour

Yasyamon!"

"Rinkmon!"

"Chameleonmon!"

"Kyubimon!"

"Growlmon!"

"Gargomon!"

* * *

The six Digimon faced each other. These were definitely new types of Armour Digivolutions Rika wasn't aware of, mostly because these three Digimon never used these Digi-Eggs in the anime she used to watch.

Suddenly the six Digimon charged at each other and a vicious war broke out. A barrage of Gargo Lasers, multiple blue fireballs and giant red fireballs shot everywhere against Yasyamon's psychic shockwave attacks, Rinkmon's blue energy beams and Chameleonmon's tongue attacks. The Tamers were able to dodge the attacks and hide behind a small stone wall, it was tall enough to keep them safe, but short enough for them to watch from over the wall.

From what it looked like, their Digimon was winning; it was natural really since their Digimon has had practice with their Digivolutions while the intruding Digimon went into their armour forms for the first time. Suddenly after a huge explosion from a combination of all six attacks, the Digimon were scattered and on the ground hurt. It was a tie; the Tamers ran up to their Digimon.

"Kyubimon! Are you alright?!"

"I… I think so."

"How're you doing Growlmon!?"

"I'm ok…"

"You ok Gargomon!?"

"I'm ok… I think."

After that, Kyubimon, Growlmon and Gargomon slowly stood up along with the Armour Digimon. But just as Yasyamon, Rinkmon and Chameleonmon were about to fight again, they quickly collapsed onto the ground knocked out; then the quickly Degenerated back into Veemon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon as the Digi-Eggs used for the Digivolutions fell out of them.

Soon Kyubimon, Growlmon and Gargomon Degenerated back into Viximon, Guilmon and Terriermon, knowing there's no need to keep their Digivolutions on anymore; they all sighed with relief. Then after that, Thomas and DemiDevimon arrived with a small sack. "Thanks for your help. Maybe now these little guys will behave."

"No problem… just don't expect us to go egg hunting again." said Rika

DemiDevimon placed the Digi-Eggs in the sack and lifted it up easily; then Thomas walked up to the Digimon and picked all three of them up.

"Sorry if these guys gave you any trouble." said DemiDevimon.

"It wasn't too much trouble." said Viximon as she bounced into Rika's arms.

"Yep. Fighting Digimon that enter the human world is our job!" said Terriermon as he jumped into Henry's arms.

"And eating bread!" said Guilmon, he then jumped into Takato's arms, but not understand his size and weight which caused Takato to fall onto his back with Guilmon sitting on him. Rika couldn't help but let out a smirk.

"So what will you do with them?" asked Rika.

"These guys are going back to my farm, where they should be." said Thomas looking down at the insomnious Digimon "I can't punish them too much, they've only hatched a week ago so they're technically only infants. Besides, your Digimon beating them up was punishable enough… I'll see you guys later." After that, Thomas and DemiDevimon disappeared in a binary of light.

The Tamers walked off readying to go home after Takato was able to get Guilmon off of him. "I better give Terriermon back to Suzie… that way she'll whine less." said Henry, "Plus I need a nap."

"I hope she doesn't put a diaper on me!" said the worried Terriermon.

"And I need a lunch break. I'm starving." moaned Takato.

"Me too!" said the jolly Guilmon.

"I just need to get home and rest." said Rika. After that, Takato, Guilmon, Henry and Terriermon looked at Rika with a smirk. "What?"

"And a bath! You smell of garbage!" all four of them said.

Rika was confused but then she remembered, she did get piled on by garbage in the junkyard, she then just looks away feeling a little embarrassed. After that the three went their separate ways to go home.

The end for now

* * *

_Some bad news, due to the editing of these chapters and even changing some bits becoming a bit more difficult, plus my other stories getting In the way, I'm changing it so this will only be updated once a week instead of twice a week. So every Friday is when this series will be updated, sorry for any inconvenience._


	15. Statues

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 15: Statues**

It was a school trip today, to celebrate Halloween in just a few days. Rika was on the bus, she kept Viximon safe in her backpack just in case of another Digimon attack; next to her was obviously Takato, behind her was Kazu and Kenta, and in front of her was Jeri and Henry. Rika was quite surprised about this sudden Halloween fieldtrip; they never had a fieldtrip to celebrate Halloween before, Principal Yamaki must love Halloween if they're going to have a fieldtrip on the day before they break up for the half term.

Rika suspected that it was going to be some famous haunted house or something, maybe even an amusement park rumoured to have ghosts. Or some Halloween based land; either way it was a good excuse to get away from gym and science class, the subjects she wasn't very good at, or even cared about to be honest; she hopes not to have to relieve these subjects in her future career, whatever that will be, she hasn't decided yet.

To her surprise, the bus stopped at a museum based on the subject of horror movies. Rika was slightly impressed, but the word 'museum' is pretty much of a slang for 'snooze fest' to everyone else, including her. Just as long as she doesn't have to do anything with gym or science, she's glad.

As the students got out one by one, Rika noticed Yamaki standing next to the museum manager. Yamaki was obviously flicking open and shut his lighter, she never understood why he does that, he could be obsessive compulsive or something.

Yamaki cleared his throat before speaking, "Ok students… I know not many of you are interested in museums but this one is about all the old horror movies your parents probably saw when they were kids. And even the newest horror movies that just came out on cinema… now all I want you to do is behave. And don't leave the museum without supervision, ok?" He then turns to the museum manager "Over to you sir."

The museum manager stepped forward looking a bit jolly "Now I'm perfectly aware of that the children of today love the newest horror movies and they even try to sneak into the cinemas to check out the ones above your age restrictions… but this museum is like a ticket to those you couldn't normally see… my museum has absolutely no restrictions… so enter at your own health risk!"

Rika felt a little glad actually, since there's no restrictions, that means there's most likely all those bloody violent movies she couldn't normally see are in there too. But soon her excitement turned to annoyed when she looked at Takato and remembered his one little problem… He's a coward.

Takato can't stand any kind of horror movie; she remembers that very well, especially their few nights watching a few, Takato screams a lot and ends up clinging onto her, if anyone saw that the would definitely think they're a couple; in fact there's not one horror movie Takato's not afraid of. Its somewhat amusing to see him squeal like a girl, but at the same time pitiable. Takato soon looks back at her; both of them knew that Takato was gonna embarrass her.

"R-Rika…? I'm uncomfortable with this." said Takato looking really nervous, his hands were already shivering.

Rika let out a sigh "You'll be fine…" she then looks away _'I hope'_

The museum was highly decorated with blood red drapes, black and red carpeting in a malicious pattern along with statues, paintings and even video clips of old and new movie monsters, and the students never got a tour, they were allowed to explore the museum in their own way, just as long as they don't leave the museum. Takato's face was pale white, luckily there were some alert screams from students who saw the statues, paintings and even horrific video clips so she couldn't be too embarrassed when Takato screamed.

But once, twice, maybe even fifty times Takato has screamed in this museum in the last thirty minutes, and they were here for two hours. Rika was slowly getting a headache, but at the same time she couldn't leave him, she would become guilty leaving Takato in a room of every scary thing known to man where he could end up having a heart attack, so… 'suck it up' Rika repeated in her head.

If she keeps walking with Takato exploring the museum she'll probably get the biggest headache ever, but if she ditches Takato, she'll get guilty and Takato would probably never drop that moment ever. Kind of like the time Rika hid his goggles and forgot where she hid them; Takato never dropped that subject for ages.

As the two entered a different room, it was surprisingly dark. Rika couldn't see a thing, she could barely see her own hand in front of her face; but soon she felt something grip her other hand, it made her gasp slightly until she knew what it was. "Are you holding my hand Takato?" asked Rika I nan annoyed tone.

Takato gulped slightly "I… I'm scared ok, you know me… besides, its so dark no one will see us."

Rika just ignored that she couldn't use one of her hands, instead just finding a light switch as the two walked further in, Rika always kept her other hand close to the wall looking for a light switch. Soon Rika felt something bumpy on a square shaped thing. She could only assume it was a light switch; just as soon as Rika clicked it, she regretted doing it.

The lights went on and right in front of them was a huge twenty foot Cerberus like monster with an ogre shaped body and red piercing eyes, razor sharp teeth, bulging veins, rotting corpses hanging from its mouth and it glared right into them. Rika jumps back a bit knowing it was just a statue.

But in the next second she heard Takato scream so loud she went slightly deaf and the next thing she knew, she was holding up Takato as he clinged around her like a damsel in distress. Rika unfortunately caught by surprise and not very good at heavy lifting, she lost her balance and fell back hitting the ground very hard and Takato's weight on top of her, didn't really ease the pain. As soon as Rika got a grip on herself, she punched Takato off her. "GET OFF ME!"

Rika slowly got up rubbing her ribcage and her back as she glared at Takato who looked up at her scared. "S-SORRY! I PANICKED!"

Rika knew one thing, if she stayed here for any longer she was gonna end up carrying Takato all the way through this museum; she decided one thing as she grabbed Takato's shirt collar and pulled up the flinching Takato thinking he was gonna get hit. But instead, Rika dragged him away from the room. "That's it! I'm getting you out of here before you flatten me again!"

Takato tried his best to keep his footing but that wasn't going too well "But we're not allowed to leave without supervi-"

"Give me a reason why I should care!" said Rika looking back at Takato, she looked really angry which scared Takato even more than the museum. After that, the two left without anyone noticing her or Takato.

* * *

About a few minutes later, Rika and Takato were outside the door of the museum, Rika got Viximon out to feed her a candy bar. Rika soon looks at Takato who looked incredibly embarrassed, Rika wasn't too surprised.

"R-Rika? I'm so sorry I did that… it just got me off guard and it was right up close." said Takato rubbing the back of his head.

Rika calmed down a bit since "Well… its ok… that statue did look quite realistic… I betcha the museum manager kept the lights off for someone to freak out like that."

"Yeah… I guess…" Takato let out another sigh "Well… I guess it would end up being a funny story to tell later on won't it"

"No one must know that ok?" said Rika glaring at Takato fiercely.

"O-Ok… sorry." said Takato feeling nervous again.

After a few more minutes of silence, they both heard a scream; but this scream was familiar to Rika, and it didn't come from inside the museum. Rika and Takato looked around and noticed some weird plant shop with a sign saying 'Rose Depart', but it looked abandoned.

In front of the shop was Thomas holding his foot in pain, next to his foot was a broken plant pot. Rika forgot about Thomas's ingrown toenail, the plant pot must've fell and struck it. After a few more seconds of Thomas hopping around in pain he walks into the shop.

"What do you think Thomas is doing?" asked Takato.

"Not sure. But I'm game to find out." said Rika getting a small smirk.

"Me too." After that, Rika and Takato walked into the plant shop. Little did they know that Kazu, Kenta and Jeri noticed Rika and Takato enter so they walked towards the plant shop too.

* * *

_Looks like I have… customers… I hope they're here to give me more statues…_

* * *

Rika and Takato were at the reception desk of the plant shop, it had many beautiful plants growing in plant pots, but it had many bizarre statues. All of them were of people and Digimon, all holding unique poses, but at the same time they were really interesting.

"Whoever crafted these sure has great talent." said Rika sounding quite impressed.

"Yeah… the details in each statue is perfect." said Takato rubbing his chin.

"But where's the guy who you give money to?" asked Viximon looking up to Rika.

"You mean the cashier Viximon… and I don't know." said Rika looking down to her.

"Where's Thomas too? He couldn't have gotten too far right?" asked Takato looking over to Rika.

"He did get a head start. Maybe he didn't stop here like we did." said Rika scratching her head.

"Umm… don't you think its strange on how there are status of Digimon too?" asked Takato.

"A little… but it is a popular franchise… maybe these are for sale…" said Rika looking around. "Anyway, lets go look for Thomas, I'm curious on what he's doing here."

After that, Rika and Takato took a passageway out of four different ones; after that, Kazu, Kenta and Jeri arrived.

"What a crazy plant shop." said Kazu looking around.

"Yeah, statues as far as the eye can see." said Kenta looking quite impressed.

"I would love one of these outside my house. Maybe even one of myself." said Jeri who chuckled slightly.

"But where is everyone?" asked Kazu looking over the reception desk.

"Who knows… maybe its abandoned?" said Kenta shrugging his shoulders.

"But why would it be abandoned and still have stuff for sale?" asked Kazu looking at one of the statues "Surely they would've taken them with them, right?"

"Good point." said Kenta looking at Kazu "But its not like a common burglar can just take them or something, I bet these things weigh a ton."

"I wonder where did Takato and Rika go?" asked Jeri looking at the four corridors.

"Probably to find a place to hug." chuckled Kazu "Takato needs some comforting after his latest scream in the museum. Lets split up and search for them."

After that, Kazu, Kenta and Jeri took the other three passageways, none of them were the ones that Takato and Rika walked through.

* * *

Rika and Takato were walking through a long passageway surrounded by beautiful plants and vines, along with many more status of humans and Digimon; soon they exited the passageway and came across a greenhouse filled with even more beautiful plants, but the statues were countless, there seemed to be more than three times the amount of statues compared to the plants. "Wow… So many statues!" said Rika looking up to see the really big ones.

"Humans and Digimon alike… more than I can count!" said Takato looking even more impressed.

"And not a living soul around" Viximon was dead right, Rika felt quite nervous seeing so many statues and no real people around. She felt if she stood still for too long, she could become one.

"… Its actually kinda creepy seeing so many statues…. l-lets just find Thomas and leave quickly." said Rika now starting to feel even more nervous. After that, Rika and Takato began to look through the greenhouse looking for Thomas.

* * *

We then find Jeri walking along a hallway filled with plants and statues of humans and Digimon; she soon entered what seemed to be a room filled with beautiful fountains and even more statues of humans and Digimon. Jeri smirked at how pretty these fountains are, she felt mesmerized by the water flowing in different patterns. Jeri lets out a peaceful sigh "These drops of water doesn't seem to have a care in the world… just flying and circling around whatever they want…"

Meanwhile Kenta was walking around what seemed to be part of the greenhouse; it had many statues of humans and Digimon all surrounding a huge statue of a Greymon. Kenta was impressed at this many statues, he then began to climb the Greymon statue, when he reached the head, he just sat on it and looked around. "I bet I could find Takato and Rika from up here… if there weren't so many statues in the way."

Now to Kazu, who was walking along a hallway filled with even more statues; when he walked around a corner, he found even more statues staring at him. He felt a little creeped out at this so he slowly stepped back not taking his eyes off them in case something bad happened; as he took about twenty steps back, he bumped into something that wasn't a statue, he quickly jumped back facing what he bumped into; the other person did the same and they both had the same freaked out look.

"Thomas!?" exclaimed Kazu.

"Kazu!? What are you doing here!?" asked Thomas looking surprised. "This place is incredibly dangerous!"

"Dangerous!? How!?" asked Kazu sounding worried now.

"That's what I'm investigating right now… who else is here?" asked Thomas calming down a bit.

"Kenta, Jeri, Takato and his sweetheart Rika." said Kazu calming down too.

"They're here too!?" asked Thomas sounding surprised again.

"Well yeah, we are a team... Why?" asked Kazu.

Thomas looks back at the statue he was looking at before bumping into Kazu. "I've only heard rumours, but this place came from the Digital World."

"R-Really!? So this entire shop is one of those Digital Zones Takato spoke about!?" asked Kazu sounding shocked.

"Yes… but I am intrigued by the amount of statues around here… its rather disturbing in a way." said Thomas rubbing his chin.

"In more ways than one." Kazu looked at the statue Thomas was looking at "So what so special about this statue your looking at?"

"This statue looked remarkably like a Tamer I've seen before... even the same Digimon next to him." said Thomas looking back at Kazu.

"Friend of yours?" asked Kazu bluntly.

"No… he died long ago." Thomas faced the statues again "Well officially anyway."

"Officially? As in he wasn't found? As in he could still be alive?" asked Kazu.

"I doubt he's alive at all… according to the report from Hypnos… he died at the hands of a…" Kazu looked at Thomas suspiciously; he was silent as he had a horrified expression. Kazu felt a little scared now. "KOKATORIMON!"

Thomas ran off leaving Kazu in the dust. "Koka- what!?"

"FIND THE OTHERS! WE'RE ALL IN GRAVE DANGER!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Rika and Takato were in the middle of the greenhouse; they were surrounded by so many statues they felt a little trapped. "O-Ok this is freaking me out now!" said Rika holing Viximon a bit tighter now.

"Who could own over a thousand statues!?" asked Takato feeling even more nervous.

Suddenly Viximon began to growl in a certain direction; as they looked, they saw an actual person wearing a white suit and sunglasses; he looked like the shop owner, Rika felt relieved, but Viximon normally growls when there's danger so that didn't make Rika too relieved.

"Welcome to Rose Depart… did you by any chance bring any more beautiful statues to my shop?"

"W-What?" muttered Rika "N-no… we just want to leave!"

"Oh how poor… you didn't bring any statues… oh well…" The man took off his sunglasses, to their shock, he had blood red eyes with black pupils. Rika and Takato slowly stepped back. "I suppose you'll just have to occupy the statues then!"

Suddenly the man inflated himself and exploded; shredded body parts flew everywhere like confetti which terrified the three, but confused them too as they even saw large feathers in the scatter as well. But what replaced the man was what scared the kids even more, it was a seven foot white rooster with red eyes and large back feathers.

"A Digimon!"

"It's a trap!"

Suddenly the Digimon fired a white beam from its eyes, Rika and Takato jumped out of the way, to their shock, the ground that was hit by the light turned into grey stone. This horrified Rika more now, she now realised that these statues are actually the humans and Digimon that came here turned to stone by this Digimon.

"RUN!"

Rika and Takato began to run from the Digimon that began to give chase; the kids entered the hallway, when Rika looks back, she noticed that the Digimon was catching up. "Now I wonder where I should place you two after your stone?"

After that, the Digimon fired another white beam; Rika quickly grabbed Takato by the shirt and yanked him around a corner dodging the white beam and they continued to run more. The two entered the greenhouse once again near the Greymon statue, they bumped into Kenta.

"Kenta!?" exclaimed Rika.

"Wow I found you!" said Kenta looking pleased "What are you doing here?"

"Running for our lives!" said Takato looking scared.

"What from!?" asked Kenta now looking worried.

Suddenly the rooster Digimon jumped into the area and fired another white beam at Kenta, but Takato and Rika quickly ran dragging Kenta out of the way; but before they could get far, the Digimon jumped into their path causing them to quickly stop and try to run back but they all fell tripping over each other's legs. They all looked up in horror as the Digimon prepared another white beam attack until-

BOOM!

A black dart shaped beam and a plasma sphere both blasted into the Digimon, they all look to the direction of where the attacks came from. It was Thomas with the same energy rifle used against IceDevimon, and DemiDevimon who looked smug as usual.

"Hey DemiDevimon… are you hungry?"

"I'm starved!"

"Good… how about a little roast chicken? He's a little raw now but a few more blasts should get him ready within a few seconds… am I right Kokatorimon?"

Kokatorimon growled at the two. "You two dare to mock me! I could turn you into statues and smash you apart, that way you'll never be revived!"

"Bring it!" said Thomas. Kokatorimon fired a white beam at Thomas, but he quickly blocks it with a beam from his energy cannon making quite a bit of smoke; but it quickly died down leaving Thomas smirking.

After that, Thomas and DemiDevimon shot their range attacks at Kokatorimon again blasting him away, soon Kokatorimon grew enraged and he began to chase Thomas as he and DemiDevimon ran off. "GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

Rika, Takato and Kenta took his word for it as they ran off out of the greenhouse and began to look for the exit.

* * *

Thomas and DemiDevimon fled from the enraged Kokatorimon in the hallways. The two managed to block all of Kokatorimon's beam attacks with their own; when the two entered the fountain room, they stopped as they noticed Jeri gazing at the fountains.

"Jeri!?" exclaimed Thomas.

Jeri quickly noticed Thomas. "Oh hi Thomas! Isn't this place nice?"

"It would be if there wasn't a deranged chicken Digimon turning every visitor into stone for its mere enjoyment!"

Jeri turned silent for a moment "… What?"

Suddenly a white beam blasted a wall freaking Thomas and DemiDevimon out as Kokatorimon jumped around the corner to face the three. Thomas fired his energy cannon at Kokatorimon blasting him away. Suddenly Thomas threw his free hand around Jeri's waist making her blush, but that soon changed when she was lifted off her feet and was hung over Thomas's shoulder like she was being kidnapped.

"W-What are you!?"

"You can slap me later!"

After that, Thomas and DemiDevimon ran off with Jeri being carried. Thomas was still able to blast back Kokatorimon's white beam attacks easily, but carrying Jeri slowed him down a little.

Back to Rika, Takato and Kenta who had entered a large area which isn't filled with statues at all. They all stopped for a moment to catch their breath; Rika felt horrified at this, she felt she was now in a horror movie, she even began to look around in a panic. To her relief Kazu arrived through another hallway.

"Guys!" said Kazu looking pleased now that he's found them.

"Kazu!? You're here too?!" asked Takato.

"We have got to get out of here!" said Kazu as he looked behind him.

"We know! A Kokatorimon has turned all these humans and Digimon into stone!" said Rika.

"Wait!? Where's Jeri!?" asked Kenta looking around.

"Jeri's here too!?" asked Takato feeling surprised.

"Heads up!"

They all looked towards another passageway and Thomas carrying Jeri and DemiDevimon entering the hallway too, they felt relieved, but soon they turned scared as Kokatorimon barged in and fired another white beam which DemiDevimon blocked with another Demi Dart attack. Thomas placed Jeri down next to Takato; but before Thomas could fire his rifle again, a white beam struck it turning the cannon to stone. "Ah crap!" Thomas tried to shake the cannon off his arm but it wouldn't budge.

"Oh no… has the poor little boy broke his toy?" mocked Kokatorimon who began to step closer.

Thomas soon smirked "Relax! This little boy has an even better toy to play with!" Soon Thomas took out his Digivice and it began to glow. That one part made everyone else surprised.

* * *

**DIGIVOLUTION**

Suddenly DemiDevimon was encased in a black digitized egg

"DemiDevimon Digivolve to…"

After a huge shockwave. DemiDevimon now looked exactly like IceDevimon but black

"Devimon!"

* * *

Devimon stood gracefully in front of the kids facing Kokatorimon. Rika felt really scared now, since the memories of IceDevimon flew back to her; but she also knew she was safe since it was Thomas's Digimon. Kokatorimon tried to use his eye laser attack again but Devimon blocked it with a huge black barrier. Then Kokatorimon began to take a few steps back as Devimon began to glow purple.

"Devimon! Take him down!"

"Hell's Contract!"

Devimon fired a huge black and purple beam from his hands which blasted a hole right through Kokatorimon and he quickly disappeared in a bunch of particles in the same way IceDevimon did. Rika was surprised how quick that was, Devimon took it out in mere seconds.

Soon Devimon Degenerated back into DemiDevimon as he flew onto Thomas's shoulder.

"Well… you made that look easy." said the surprised Rika.

"I've had DemiDevimon since I was two... So its only natural he was be incredibly powerful." said Thomas as he looked at his rifle slowly changing back.

"And how old are you now?" asked Rika.

"Fourteen... meaning I've had DemiDevimon for twelve long years."

Suddenly there was an earthquake; they all looked around as they saw the walls slowly disappearing; the statues around even began to change back into the humans and Digimon but they soon began to disappear too. Within a few more seconds, the entire plant shop was gone.

* * *

It didn't take long for Thomas to explain everything.

"So that shop was a Digital Zone?" asked Jeri.

"Yeah… and Kokatorimon's curse is broken… meaning all those poor souls who turned stone will change back…" said Thomas.

"Who'd thought a plant shop could be so deceptive." said Kenta as he crossed his arms.

"That's why its called Rose Depart…" said Thomas "Meaning that even the prettiest of roses has the sharpest thorns… that shop was beautiful on the inside but it had a very sick and twisted shop owner."

"Well I'm glad that's over." said Rika looking over to where the shop used to be.

"Yep. That Kokatorimon was on our hit list for quite a while." said DemiDevimon looking smug.

"Well anyway… we should return to the museum… fake horror is a hell of a lot better than real horror that's for sure." said Rika feeling a bit relieved now.

"Yeah… so Thomas, do you wanna join us?" asked Jeri.

"Are you nuts!? I can't stand horror movies!" said Thomas losing his typical calm demeanour "I can't count the number of times I've had to hold onto my girlfriend during one!"

"You!? Have a girlfriend?!" asked Kenta sounding surprised.

Everyone grew a smirk at the embarrassed boy looking away slightly. Even Rika who normally wouldn't, but this felt like something she should to.

"That's so cute!" said Jeri looking cheerful. "C'mon who is she!? Is she pretty!?"

"Well… ex-girlfriend… we broke up seven years ago." said Thomas looking a bit upset.

"Oh… sorry." said Jeri losing her smile.

"Its… its ok…" Thomas lets out a sigh "I-I should go!"

After that, Thomas and DemiDevimon disappeared in binary of light, Rika couldn't help but think that Thomas looked as if he was about to cry. But she just ignored it.

* * *

Back at the museum, the kids were able to get back in undetected; Takato still screamed at the fake horror stuff but she was glad that he as screaming at fake stuff than real monsters. As they entered the last room, it was somewhat bright this time.

"This is the last room…" said Rika feeling pleased.

"Thank heck for that!" said Takato holding his neck. "I can feel my heart in my throat!"

As the two continued their walk through it. Rika saw something so terrifying to her she quickly screamed and the next thing she knew, she jumped into Takato's arms with her arms clinged around him; except this time Takato didn't fall back. Instead he just laughed leaving Rika confused; she then looked again at what scared her.

It was a Frankenstein's monster-shaped chicken; Rika felt she must got scared of it because of Kokatorimon; she then looks at Takato smirking.

"I remember this! Chickenstein!" chuckled Takato. "The only horror monster I found funny!"

"W-What!?" Rika grew embarrassed now; she freaked out at the one thing Takato wasn't scared of. "Umm… can you put me down before someone sees us?"

"Oh… sorry." Takato placed Rika down onto her feet, she still couldn't believe she got scared by something Takato found funny. She just hopes to god this doesn't occur again.

The end for now.


	16. Awkward

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 16: Awkward**

The third day of the half term; and tomorrow is Halloween. Rika had no interest in trick or treating but she still enjoys the holiday anyway; but today was the day where she poses for a photo for her mother's magazine again. Rika had entered her dressing room with Viximon in her hands, she noticed the dress she has to wear; it was a black dress suitable for a ball, it looked similar to her own dress back at the school dance.

She wished she wore that black dress instead, it looked more appealing to her, but too late; but she did notice something odd about this dress though, no shoulder straps, and this dress's skirt was shorter than the other dresses she wore, even her school skirt. This dress… was actually more revealing than the other dresses; Rika began to feel embarrassed that she has to wear something that shows off most of her legs and shoulders. "What's mom thinking!? I can't wear this! Its… so revealing!"

Not long later her mother arrived, just in time for Rika to complain. "Hello Rika! Just in time!"

"I can't wear this dress! It… it… it shows off too much!" exclaimed Rika looking both annoyed and embarrassed.

"I know dear… but it was a different manager that requested the child's dress… he said he wanted something… Halloween like." said Rumiko rubbing her chin.

"What's so 'Halloween like' about that!?" asked Rika waving her right arm to the dress.

"According to him, he said it was the perfect dress for the group photo." said Rumiko smiling.

Rika immediately began to blush "G-Group!? Someone is gonna stand next to me while I'm wearing that dress!?"

"Well yes. He's dressed as a vampire."

"So my role is… the vampire's victim?"

"The new manager seems to love vampire movies. He said that a vampire preparing to drink the blood of his victim would be perfect for a Halloween celebration image, since we have nothing else on dresses for weather."

Rika let out an irritated sigh knowing where this may be going "I probably already know the answer to this but… who's playing as the vampire?"

"Takato."

Rika began to feel even more embarrassed, not only did she have to wear a revealing dress next to Takato but they're most likely going to be incredibly close. If anyone she knows sees this she's never gonna live this down. _'Takato's mouth… is gonna be so close to my neck, his hands around my waist, I'll probably have to be tipped back or lifted off my feet like some damsel in distress… this day has practically started and it already couldn't get much worse!'_

* * *

Later, Rika was now in the dress, her face was bright red in both anger and embarrassment; she could almost see her own thighs out of the skirt it was that short, it was pretty tight too, her hair was down and was wearing small black slippers. She was hoping something would happen that would get her out of this dress and back into her causal clothes.

At that point, Takato arrived wearing a black tuxedo and fake fangs, his hair was even gelled back; he slowly walked up to Rika cheerfully. "Ok, the vampire is he- HOLY COW WHAT ARE YOU WEARING!?"

Takato's face completely turned red, Rika knew that Takato realised that he's gonna have to be close to her in this embarrassing dress. "I'm not looking forward to this either Takato." said Rika turning her back to him crossing her arms trying to hide her embarrassed face.

Just then, Rumiko and the cameraman arrived, Rumiko had Viximon in her arms. "Ok now… for a special photo, we're gonna do this shot else where."

"Really? Where?" asked Rika turning to face her mother.

"We're going to the old castle just outside the town." said Rumiko "We were allowed to take the photo there to make it more festive."

"But… don't you normally just place a background behind the photo using Photoshop or something?" asked Rika pointing her thumb to the white panel behind them.

"Usually we do!" said the cameraman putting his gear into a suitcase "But this new manager guy asked us to use a real background to add more interest to the customers… makes sense to me to be honest."

"And don't worry. We'll be taking a nice slow bus; it's the special bus the new manger uses for people to practice poses at the back." said Rumiko.

Rika felt almost relieved "Heh… and to think I got dressed now for nothing."

"Oh it wasn't for nothing, you can stay in that dress during the trip… I'll just get the bus ready, its already outside." Rumiko and the cameraman left, Rika felt as if a nerve just exploded. She has to walk around in this dress.

Takato looked over to Rika seeing her angered look "Uhh… R-Rika?"

"Just once I'd like something to go my way!" Rika growled.

* * *

Later on the bus, it was driving slowly and smoothly across the road in order to avoid bumping. The back of the bus had no seats, it was an area for people to practice poses; Rika and Takato were at the back face to face, too embarrassed to make a move. But they knew the pose they had to do.

Takato had to have one hand around her back and his other hand around the back of her shoulders while having her tipped back slightly almost like she was going to be swept off her feet and her arms have to dangle to the ground like she's hypnotized, and their heads have to be very close so Takato can look as if he's about to bite her neck. Rika was embarrassed about the dress and her damsel role, it was completely out of character to her; and she knew Takato's embarrassed because of what he has to do, also once false move and he could end up touching something he's not suppose to.

So in a way, Takato has more of a reason to be embarrassed, he's always shy around cute girls and/or girls in cute outfits. She would admit she's cute; and Takato's first attempt at handling a girl would just happen to be the girl that can kick his butt if he screws up, not to mention about the fact that many people say they're lovers when they're not, this pose would just give them the wrong idea.

Rika let out a sigh "… Well someone's got to make a move here… sadly."

"I'm… I'm scared." said Takato shivering slightly.

"L-Look… we'll just move at the same time ok? Slowly."

"O-Ok"

After that, Rika and Takato slowly walked closer to each other; Takato slowly placed his left arm on Rika's back in which she began to blush, no surprise though. "J-Just keep that there! Don't move it… and especially don't move it down!"

"O-Ok… n-now for the other hand." After that, Takato placed his right hand on the back of Rika's shoulders; now it was time for the hard part. Takato began to move his hands in order to tip Rika back slightly; Rika became nervous, not only was this an awkward position, she's worried if Takato loses his grip, Rika couldn't hang on since she has to have her arms flop down. Rika was now only had the back of her feet touching the ground, they both noticed Rumiko watching them.

"That's great so far!" said Rumiko looking glad "Now alls left is for Takato to move his head close to Rika's neck to look like he's gonna drink her blood."

"You have no idea how embarrassed we are." said the annoyed looking Rika.

"Just be thankful your not in front of a huge crowd." said Rumiko chuckling slightly.

"But people are gonna see us in your magazine." said Takato looking embarrassed.

"Don't worry… it won't be too bad." said Rumiko.

Suddenly the bus hit something huge which caused it to make a big bump; causing Takato to lose his footing. Both Rika and Takato quickly fell and landed on the floor hard, but that was nothing compared to what happened; both Rika and Takato were lying on the floor, with Takato lying on top of her, their faces were close enough for a kiss. Both their faces were bright red.

"Well… this is awkward." said a surprised looking Rumiko.

Rika quickly pushed Takato off her, she quickly sat up as she just burst out screaming.

"I CAN'T DO THIS! I CAN'T DO THIS! IT'S TO EMBARRASSING! PLEASE LET ME OFF THIS BUS! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OOUUT!"

"O-Ok! Ok!" Rumiko turned to the surprised looking bus driver "Q-Quick, Turn this bus around!"

* * *

Much later; they were finally back in the studio, Rika was back in her casual clothing, same for Takato. Rika covered her embarrassed face in front of her mother who looked really guilty. "Mom I'm sorry! But I just can't wear anything like that or do any poses like that! I don't mind doing these group photos with Takato but I never want to do anything like this again!"

"I understand… I had a feeling this wouldn't go smoothly anyway… it wasn't right for me to put you two through that. I'm the one who should be sorry." said Rumiko who looked just as guilty.

"But why did this new manager wanted us like that?" asked Takato scratching the back of his head "I can understand for the Halloween tradition, but it's the kids section!"

Rika moved her hands away from her face realizing this "Hey… Takato's right! No one our age has to do that, they just have to stand still. I'm aware I had to do the same last year when I dressed as a witch."

"Not too different from herself though" mumbled Takato, but he quickly took a sep back seeing Rika glare at him hearing what he said.

"That's a good point… I'll have a word with him once I get the chance… in any case, you two can go now." said Rumiko.

Later when Rika got Viximon, she and Takato began to walk to Takato's house for a game of cards. "I never want to do anything like that again!" said Rika covering her face with her free arm.

"Same here… that was just too embarrassing!" said Takato still blushing slightly.

"But you two were doing good until that little bump there." said Viximon looking cheery as usual.

"I guess… but we didn't like it." said Takato rubbing the back of his head.

There was a strong silence between the two for about a minute or so; Rika looked at Takato who then looked back at her. "Umm… if it makes you feel any better…"

"Yes?"

"Umm… you did look lovely in that dress…" said Takato smiling slightly. Rika and Takato then both began to blush. "I… probably shouldn't have said that."

Rika glared at Takato "I…" she then let out a sigh and looked away from him to hide her embarrassed face "… I'll admit you looked sharp in that vampire suit."

"R-Really?" asked Takato blushing slightly.

"Yeah… but lets not tell anyone what we just said… or wore… or done ok?" asked Rika.

"O-Of course."

After that, the two entered Takato's house where they'll play their card game. One thing Rika was kind of glad about though, to her, this still wasn't as embarrassing as the Easter Photo Shoot.

The end for now.


	17. The Spider Mansion

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 17: The Spider Mansion**

Halloween had finally passed; nothing much happened, other than Takato and Henry got a huge batch of candy; and Rika secretly took a few because of her sweet tooth. But the results of Halloween wasn't the main thing on Rika's mind; the main thing on Rika's mind was her little trip to the richest mansion in Japan.

Rika (holding Viximon), Takato, her mother Rumiko and the cameraman were on the same bus as before; but instead of practicing a pose for a special place. The new manager who had requested Rika to wear that revealing dress for the Halloween magazine had asked Rumiko to come to her mansion for dinner as a form of apology.

Rika wasn't too fond of going but she had to anyway since she was part of this manager's magazine request, same with Takato. As for the cameraman, he's the main photographer for Rumiko's magazines, so one could say he was Rumiko's partner. As the bus arrived, the four got out and walked towards the mansion. Rika and Takato were wearing jackets due to the cold wind.

Rika was impressed by the large amounts of gold statues and even the giant golden fountain; everything looked incredibly expensive and the gardens around the mansion were beautiful; fit for the Garden of Eden.

Takato looked around feeling really impressed "Wow! This place is incredible!" he ran up to one of the statues to get a better look. "Its incredibly shiny. Do you think its all made of gold?"

"Well this is the home of the president of KeiFashions… the biggest fashion designs company in Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire house was made of gold." said the cameraman with his big grin as usual.

"Why are we coming here anyway? Does this manager want me in more revealing dresses?" asked Rika looking up to her mother, her tone somewhat hinted Rumiko she was not pleased with this.

"No darling, we've been invited for dinner at his place as a form of apology… you see he got the designs mixed up." said Rumiko looking a little embarrassed.

"In a way its kinda good he did." said the cameraman walking up a bit "Otherwise we'd never get into a fancy place like this."

"Speaking of which-" Rumiko walked up to the cameraman as they began to walk a little faster having their own conversation, leaving Rika and Takato going at their own pace.

Takato noticed Rika looking a bit annoyed so he walked a bit closer to her "You ok Rika?"

"I'll be fine… just as long as I can keep these clothes on." said Rika after letting out a quiet sigh.

"Yeah! Because that little scene was really awkward." said Viximon, though there was a slight chuckle in her tone.

Suddenly a figure shot out from the bushes scaring the three; the figure was a short fat man wearing a spider t-shirt, his face was incredibly gloomy and sad, but it just made him look even more scary causing Rika to stand slightly behind Takato. "S-Sorry I scared you… but its because Hitomi has escaped."

"H-Hitomi!?" exclaimed Rika.

"D-Don't mind me." The man then slowly walked back into the bushes leaving the three scared and confused.

"What was with that guy!?" asked Takato looking back to Rika.

"Doesn't matter! Lets just go before he comes back!" said the panicked Viximon.

"Agreed" Said Rika nodding.

The three then ran back to Rumiko and the cameraman; there they arrived at the front door which looked as if it was made of gold and fitted with gemstones.

"Wow! His door is shiny too, fitted with gems from top to bottom. This guy must be loaded!" said Takato looking surprised.

Suddenly the doors opened revealing a tall bald man in a grey suit. "Ah Rumiko… you're finally here… please come in."

"Thank you Mr. Kei" said Rumiko nodding.

Rika then whispered to Takato. "Even his head is shiny."

"I bet he even has a shiny wig somewhere."

As they entered the reception room, the man known as Mr. Kei noticed Rika and began to rub her head. "And this must be your daughter Rika, I say she is absolutely adorable!"

"P-Please quit it" said Rika looking annoyed, she would've been ruder but knowing this was an important visit, she tried to keep calm.

Mr. Kei then let go looking a little embarrassed as Rika looked at him annoyed. "Oh sorry…"

* * *

Rika and Takato sat on a couch just opposite of Rumiko and the cameraman who began to glance around aiming his camera like he was going to take a barrage of photographs like a machinegun.

"I'll see that they bring you some refreshments." Mr. Kei pushed down on a button for a voice box. "We have company… could you please bring some coffee to the reception room." No reply came out, this made them all a little confused. "I wonder what my wife is up to now? I'm sorry, could you please wait a minute?"

"Of course." said Rumiko.

After that, Mr. Kei left the reception room; Rika began to look around, all this stuff was so expensive, it was like it was first class on a plane. Rika wasn't one of those types to feel nervous because she's like a fish out of water; soon she looked around even more and noticed the cameraman off the couch and began to take a few photographs. "I'm finally in Mr. Kei's mansion! Now its time for the big stuff!" he muttered.

Rika had no idea what the cameraman was talking about, but she felt it wasn't too important, what did get her attention though was that Takato was off the couch as well, in fact he was looking through a bunch of books. "What are you doing?"

"Check these out… these'll interest you."

Rika done so and began to look into the books too, she wasn't sure why her mother wasn't stopping her as well. The books were loaded with text, but it wasn't complicated, in fact it was written out like a script, but the title of these were the main things that seemed a bit out of place.

"Final Fantasy the Wrath of Anubis" … "Halo Infinite" … "Elder Scrolls: The Dawn of Darkness" … "Spongebob and Friends vs. Mortal Kombat" … "Slenderman vs. Predator"

"These are all Fan-Fictions." said Takato looking both surprised and confused.

"Mr. Kei is a fan-fic writer?" asked Rika looking confused "At his age?"

"Why yes." They all look and noticed Mr. Kei holding a trey with the stuff for coffee, and even some orange juice for Rika and Takato. Then the four sat back down and began to have their refreshments with Mr. Kei who sat on a single chair in between the two couches.

"So you write these… Fan-Fictions?" asked Rumiko feeling a bit confused by this, she wasn't too familiar with the term Fan-Fiction at all.

"Yes… Its been a hobby of mine since I was a child." said Mr. Kei with a smile "Writing stories of my favourite shows when I was young… I even gotten into a few of my daughter's videogames so that's why you see a few fan-fics of the latest games."

The cameraman gave out a slight chuckle "A forty year old playing videogames… we're not too different."

"Have you done any fan-fics on Digimon?" asked Takato making Rika sigh faintly.

"Ahh… Digimon… I'm afraid I haven't… but that is without a doubt my favourite anime and game series ever… but I've never been able to think of a story." said Mr. Kei rubbing his chin.

"D-Did you have a favourite Digimon?" asked Rika feeling a bit embarrassed to have these types of conversations.

Kei leaned back a bit "Hmm… lets see… I think it would have to be Renamon."

Rika looked quite surprised "S-Seriously!?"

"Yeah… so beautiful… so graceful… she was always my Digimon of choice in the games."

"Wow!" Takato chuckled "That's Rika's favourite Digimon too… well… that and her In-Training form Viximon."

"I always thought Viximon was adorable too…" said Mr. Kei with a smile.

"Umm… so all in all… you're like a grown up that refuses to… well… grow up." said Rumiko who smiled a little.

Mr. Kei chuckled a bit "I suppose so… but none the less, these inspirations was what helped me make KeiFashions what it is today… but that alone couldn't make it this popular… which is why my family are part of the job too."

"So KeiFashions used to be a family business?" asked Rumiko after taking a sip of her coffee.

"It still is. Me, my beautiful wife and my lovely daughter all work together to make KeiFashions the way it is now." said Mr. Kei leaning back a bit.

Not long after that, the door opened revealing a late-thirties woman wearing a beautiful red and yellow flowery long dress walked in. "Dear… dinner is ready."

"Ah splendid… we'll be right there honey." Mr. Kei then waves his hand to introduce the guests "Oh and these are our guests... Rumiko Nonaka the model, Jeff Spaman the cameraman, this is Rika Nonaka, Rumiko's daughter and a friend of her daughter Takato Matsuki."

"I see… and would the young girl be the reason why they're here?" asked the woman.

"Uhh... yeah it was kind of a mix up." said Mr. Kei rubbing the back of his head "And her friend Takato was part of that mix up so I couldn't leave him out."

"Very well…" The woman then walks off.

Mr. Kei turns back to the others "That was my wife Celina Kei… isn't she just beautiful?"

"She certainly is." said the cameraman, now to Rika's knowledge, his name was Jeff Spaman, to her it sounded like a stupid name.

"Anyway... Come. we haven't prepared anything special but eat as much as you like." After that, the group then walked out of the reception room and followed Mr. Kei

"I like him." said Takato to Rika.

"He's alright." said Rika shrugging her shoulders "I'm just surprised he likes Renamon too."

"Well we are beautiful and graceful." said Viximon looking proud.

* * *

Later in the dining room; everything was beautiful and looked expensive, many fine furniture looked like it came from those spy movies, everything also looked as if it was made of gold. But one question did come to mind… 'why was the dinner a bowl of rice?'

Rika looked down at her small bowl of rice with the look of depression, it was the cheapest food to get in Tokyo which in comparison to everything so expensive, it just seemed way too out of place. None the less she didn't complain, she just ate along with the others. She did look ahead and noticed an early twenties girl wearing a black vest and skirt with a skull image on her belt. She was no doubt Mr. Kei's daughter.

"My family are very concerned with their health." said Mr. Kei with a big smile.

"So… is the whole family here?" asked Takato "Because me and Rika saw a man wearing a spider shirt earlier."

Mr. Kei then looked surprised "O-Oh… that would be my younger brother, Saburo Kei."

"Your brother?" asked Rumiko looking confused.

"He's… somewhat unstable… he cannot communicate with others well… and he often has tantrums… not to mention he hates large rooms." said Mr. Kei looking a bit upset.

"Must be tough for him… considering that even the bathrooms here are the size of living rooms." said Jeff looking around.

"Which is why I built him a house of his own… a nice small house for him to stay in… although because of it... we don't talk often." said Mr. Kei.

"That's a shame…" said Rumiko looking a bit upset.

"Well… in a way his home benefits him greatly." said Mr. Kei with a smile "He even told me a few times he enjoys his small home."

"Is that really the only reason?" asked Mr. Kai's daughter.

"What do you mean Shina?" asked Mr. Kei.

"It would be bad for your reputation if you invited guests over and they saw him… isn't that the **main** reason you built that house?" asked Shina, her bad attitude reminded Rika of herself.

"Now honey… that's hardly a benefit for myself… I wouldn't mind people seeing my younger brother if he wasn't so unstable… not to mention we've hardly spoken to each other since we were kids." said Mr. Kei looking a bit annoyed with Shina.

Rika felt as if Mr. Kei's daughter was interrogating him; its as if he's done something wrong. But of course she wouldn't speak out in case if she was wrong, so she just listened. "So tell me… are these guests here because of another one of your mistakes?" asked Shina who looked over to Rika.

"Yeah… I thought she was eighteen and I got the skirt size wrong." said Mr. Kei feeling a bit embarrassed.

"You thought my daughter was eighteen?" asked Rumiko.

"Y-Yeah… I deeply apologize for that." said Mr. Kei.

'_Guess that explains the pose me and Takato had to do.' _thought Rika feeling quite uncomfortable with this conversation.

"A likely story dad…" said Shina looking somewhat angry.

"W-What's wrong?" asked Rumiko looking confused.

"For the past seven months there's always been a girl under fourteen wearing a revealing dress for a pose in different magazines my dad requests." said Shina leaning forward slightly. "So really its official… my own dads turned into a pedo."

That word shocked everyone, even Celina who had kept calm all day. "S-Shina! I'll admit they're revealing dresses and he got the age wrong for a few of them… but calling your own father that is a bit over the top. Especially since we have guests!"

"But its true!" exclaimed Shina "Why else would young girls wear those dresses requested my him for the past seven months… and just saying it was an accident each and every time doesn't exactly work after the first three times."

"But it was only Miss Nonaka's daughter I got mixed up that time. I'm 150% certain I had the age and dress sizes right." exclaimed Mr. Kei.

"Yeah... the right sizes to be questioned." said Shina.

"Now Shina! I forbid you to talk like that anymore! Especially when we have important guests!" said Mr. Kei in a loud tone slamming his right arm on the table.

"Fine whatever." said Shina calmly.

Rika looked back to her dinner shuddering slightly.

* * *

Later on after dinner, Rika and the others were with Mr. Kei in the living room; Rika began to feel a little uncomfortable, she looks and notices Takato isn't too different from her. Not very surprising though since Rika knew exactly what 'pedo' meant, so the two had went on the couch furthest from Mr. Kei.

"Umm… is the whole 'pedo' thing true?" asked Rumiko looking uncomfortable.

"Of course not… although rumours have spread around somehow… I'm 150% certain I got the measurements correct to match the wearer… nothing revealing at all… honest." said Mr. Kei.

"But how do they all end up… questionable?" asked Jeff.

Mr. Kei crossed his arms "Well… there are two ways it could get mixed up like that… either the designers of the dress misread the details I've written down… or the requests I've been getting are revealing."

"That would explain I guess." said Rumiko feeling unsure.

"Either way I don't want to do any more poses requested by him anyway." said Rika.

"I understand completely… I don't blame you at all." said Mr. Kei.

Suddenly there was a loud knock at the door; Kei gets up, leaves the living room and answers the door, there they saw a skinny man with a lot of facial hair and wore a suit, everyone else left the living room to see. "Oh its you… what do you want Fushen?"

"I want my promotion back Kei." said Fushen looking quite furious "You cannot demote me for something ridiculous."

"That ridiculous something shot the company ratings down… your lucky I didn't even fire you." said Mr. Kei looking just as angry.

"Umm… who's this?" asked Rumiko looking confused.

Mr. Kei turns to face the others "This is Fushen... he was once vice president but I demoted him to designer."

"And I want my promotion back… and I'm not leaving until I do!" said Fushen crossing his arms.

"What did he do?" asked Jeff.

"He began spreading rumours about my brother." said Mr. Kei "About him having spiders that illegally entered our country."

"Umm… who cares about some stupid spider?" asked Rika raising an eyebrow.

"These spiders are incredibly poisonous…" said Mr. Kei, Rika shrugged her shoulders understanding it now "But my brother could never do such a thing anyway."

"And due to these rumours, it shot down your company's reputation?" asked Jeff fixing his sunglasses.

"Right, because he claimed that the KeiFashions company helped my brother obtain these spiders." said Mr. Kei as he turned back to Fushen

"And I told you I didn't!" said Fushun. "Someone else must have spread those rumours."

"And until I get proof of that your job rank stays the same!" said Mr. Kei crossing his arms.

"Why I oughta!"

"So… what's so important about these spiders anyway?" asked Takato.

"My brother… is a spider maniac… you see his house just there." Mr. Kei points past the door leading towards a three storey black house. Rika could sense an incredible disturbance coming from it. "That house is the Spider Mansion… it contains every kind of spider in the country… plus so much more."

Rika figured something, if she went in there, she would be away from not only this argument, but Mr. Kei if the rumours are true. "C-Could we have a look?"

"I… well I don't see why not." said Mr. Kei who seemed to had doubts at first. "I'm sure Professor Yamashiro wouldn't mind a little company other than my brother."

"Who?" asked Takato.

"Yamashiro is a friend of Saburo. He's a university professor who lives nearby, so he visits my brother often to study the spiders there." said Mr. Kei.

"I see…" Rika turns to face Takato "Hey Takato… are you coming?"

"Uhh… sure, why not?" said Takato shrugging his shoulders.

"Ok good… and don't worry. You'll be just fine; me and Fushen here may end up having a long conversation here anyway… I hope you don't mind Miss Nonaka and Mr. Spaman."

"Not at all."

"I'm ok with that… I'm a very patient man."

After that, Rika and Takato walked up towards the tall black building, ignoring the argument between Mr. Kei and Fushen; Rika felt really nervous, it looked like one of those haunted mansions. When they got to the door, Rika slowly knocked it, the door then opened revealing an old man in a lab coat. "Ah… we have visitors… you must be part of Rumiko Nonaka's group that came to visit right?"

"Yeah… I'm her daughter Rika Nonaka."

"And I'm a friend of Rika, Takato Matsuki."

"I am professor Yamashiro. Please come in."

When Rika and Takato entered the room, to their shock the building had only one very tall room, and surrounding it was shelves with spiders skittering around in glass containers, along with shelves containing thousands of books. The room felt haunting as the spiders ran around the glass. In the middle of the room was a soft chair in front of a large desk with various pieces of papers with sketches, and in the corner was the man Rika and Takato met earlier today, the spider maniac Saburo Kei.

Rika began to shudder slightly _'I've only been here for a few seconds and already these spiders are creeping me out… maybe I shouldn't have asked to have a look around.'_

Rika looked at Professor Yamashiro who looked cheerful; as he pointed to Saburo Kei who was sitting in the corner. "And this is the proud owner of this wonderful mansion and the younger brother of Makai Kei, Saburo Kei."

"…G-Good… eve….ning."

"He doesn't talk to anyone other then me, please don't take any offence."

"Of course." Takato looked up seeing the building "From the outside it looks like a three storey building… but its just one large room altogether… pretty cool."

"Saburo here requested the building to look like this." said Yamashiro looking cheery "He said that rather having them here and there in large rooms, he wanted them to be in one large room so he can feel their spirits better by keeping them closer like this."

Rika looked up to the ceiling thinking she heard something while thinking of what Yamashiro said. Suddenly she saw a thousand spiders crawl around the ceiling, it was actually another large glass containing spiders; Rika looked back down feeling a little sick. _'Urgh__…__ Stupid arachnophobia! So a spider bit you and you cried for hours when you were a toddler! They can__'__t get you here since they__'__re behind glass! So suck it up you big baby!'_

She noticed Takato looking at the row of books on the shelves so Rika walked up to take a look too. "So all these books are about spiders? … lets see 'The Spider's Thread', 'A Spider Demon's Justice', 'Kiss of the Spider Woman', even 'Spider-Man'…"

"He also has the Digimon Comic issues that feature Dokugumon and Arukenimon." said Rika.

Yamashiro walked up to them "From academic text to illustrated encyclopaedias, novels to comics… all of them are invaluable books. It would be no exaggeration to say that all the books ever published about spiders across the world are here!"

Takato even noticed how the books were aligned on the shelves "All these books are even ordered alphabetically and in numerous order, they're even lined up neatly be size."

"Indeed. The shelves are fitted so there are no gaps between books and the glasses! As beautiful as a spider's web! This is indeed a spider maniac's paradise!"

Takato looked up to the other books "So… how do you get to the books on top?"

Yamashiro points to a small lift. "This little life here. It can go up and even side to side when it reaches the top, makes it easier to get to them on top."

"And the books on the other sides?" asked Rika.

"Mr. Kei is had ordered the people to build another lift. So they'll be coming soon."

Rika felt something along her arm, she looked at it and noticed there was a spider on it. Rika quickly screamed shaking her arm causing the spider to jump off and skittered under the door.

"Oh no! Hitomi has escaped again!" Saburo dashed trough the door chasing after the spider.

"Oh no this is bad, can you two help me get her back?" asked Yamashiro.

* * *

Rika and Takato were silent but they helped Saburo and Yamashiro find the spider anyway. For about ten minutes they were searching the tall grass calling Hitomi's name; just then Rika noticed the spider entering a storage area. "She went in that storage area!"

Everyone enters it as Saburo turns on the light. It was loaded with all kinds of junk scattered around everywhere; Rika then points to a shelf filled with gasoline tanks. "I saw her go in there."

Rika and Takato ran up to the shelf, the spider ran behind the gasoline tanks. "Looks like I'll have to move these gasoline tanks." Takato picked up one of the gasoline tanks, Rika could easily tell Takato was struggling, though he was better at heavy lifting than her. "W-Where do I put it!? There's no where to put it down with so much junk in the way."

"Look! On the top of the shelf!" said Rika pointing to the top shelf.

After that, Takato placed all the gasoline tanks on top of the shelf.

"I see her! I got her!" Rika then cupped her hands together catching the spider, Rika was a little glad she caught it until.

_Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Sk itter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-_

_Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Skitter-Sk itter_

"EEK! ACK! SHE'S RUNNING AROUND IN MY HANDS! I CAUGHT HER WITHOUT THINKING! DO SOMETHING QUICK THIS IS REALLY GROSS!"

"Uhh... h-hold on… I'll find some sort of container." said Saburo looking around, not noticing Takato's slightly amused face seeing Rika panic like this.

"SCREW IT!" Rika slam-dunked the spider into Takato's jacket pocket and zipped it up, she then noticed Takato's horrified disgusted face. "Sorry… I couldn't take it anymore."

"M-My only good jacket." Takato moaned.

Saburo walked up to the two "Th-thanks for catching her... as a thanks, I'll let you keep Hitomi."

"W-What!?" both of them said at the same time. "But isn't she one of your beloved spiders!?" asked Rika.

Saburo tilted his head down looking upset "She keeps running away from me… she probably hates me… that's why I'm giving you her… she's full of eggs… so the babies will be born soon. Take good care of her."

"Umm… t-thank you!?" said Takato nervously.

Rika felt very nervous. One spider was bad enough for her, but a million spiders would be torture.

* * *

Back at Saburo's Spider Mansion, they continued their look around, they then noticed Saburo looking closely into the glass of one of his spiders.

"So do you spend all day in this place Saburo?" asked Rika.

"Yes… I really love it here… as long as I'm with my precious spiders, I'm content."

"Did your brother build this house for you?" asked Takato.

"Y-Yes… he built the house exactly as I wanted it, he even orders newly published spider books and novels the day they come out… and he even purchases spiders to be sent here… of course after their venom has been removed. My brother is very thoughtful and generous."

Rika felt she needed to ask this, though no doubt it would be awkward. "So… how much do you know about your brother… anything… questionable?"

Saburo turned around to face Rika, making her feel a little creeped out. "By any chance did you wear a small dress?" Rika began to blush, but she slowly nodded. "I see… for seven or eight months there have been rumours of Makai making the dresses… much smaller for young girls… how do you call it… a paedophile?"

"That is the political correct term, yes." said Takato feeling a bit awkward too.

Saburo let out a sigh "… Trust me, Makai is not what you think… I should know… I'm his brother. We may not socialise as often as we used to, but I still know this much." he then chuckled slightly "Besides… with a hot wife like his, why would he become one?"

Takato nodded in agreement making Rika look towards him confused. Takato then took out his phone to look at the time "Hey Rika… I think we should go now. I bet your mom's getting worried."

"Y-Yeah I think your right… sorry for bothering you Mr. Kei."

"Its alright…" said Saburo smiling "Sometimes I enjoy having company… it helps… my confidence… come again sometime."

After that, Yamashiro opened the door for the kids as they were about to walk out.

"I'm not giving you back your promotion!"

"Sheesh… for a paedophile you sure are cranky!"

"I don't know how many times I have to say this, even to you! I'm not a paedophile!"

"Looks like Mr. Kei and that Fushen guy are still arguing." said Rika looking slightly annoyed.

"F-Fushen? Excuse me." After that, Saburo walked out of the house before the kids. This left all three of them confused as they followed Saburo, they all noticed Makai Kei and Fushen just outside the mansion whereas Rumiko and Jeff were not, most likely back inside.

Fushen growled "Fine! But I'll get my promotion back sometime, I was promoted to vice president for nothing you know."

They then noticed Takato, Rika Yamashiro and Saburo walking up to them. "Saburo? What are you doing out the mansion? Did another spider get away?" asked Makai.

"No its ok… umm…"

"So this must be you deranged spider maniac brother huh?" asked Fushen.

"I won't have you talk about my brother that way. He's not deranged!" said Makai.

Saburo stepped forward slightly "Do you remember the day… I was asked to go to your factory to deliver some documents?"

Makai nodded "Yeah I remember that day, it was to give you some work experience… I was proud of how you brought them so well and no distractions or problems."

"I… did notice something strange…" he faced Fushun "Is this Fushen?"

"Yeah I'm Fushen… but how do you know my name? I never introduced myself to you."

Saburo faced Makai "I saw him… alter the ages and skirt sizes you wrote down Makai."

"W-What!?" exclaimed Makai.

Fushen looked nervous "You must have me mistaken for someone else! I-I-I didn't alter anything!"

"No I know it was you, I saw you as I passed by… you changed the twelve to an eighteen and the skirt size from a twenty-five to a ten… hoping to bring Makai's company down by brining out that kind of rumour."

"But I never did anythin-"

"Shut it Fushen!" interrupted Makai "Saburo is what your saying true?"

"Of course… I have a photographic memory… I recognise his face from anywhere, and I saw his name on his name-tag."

Rika was shocked, Makai Kei was right, he isn't a pedo. One of his employees altered it purposely to make it look like he was; she felt much better now… almost.

"So you're the one who made all those disgusting clothes!"

"I…I… SEE YA!" Fushen suddenly made a mad dash towards the tall grass

Makai noticed Shina and Celina looking out the door. "Call the cops! We found the real one behind all those questionable dresses!" After that, Makai, Saburo and Yamashiro chased after Fushen leaving Rika and Takato watch. But to their shock that saw a circular fog surround the four as they all made a loud scream.

"A Digital Zone!?" asked Rika "Right now?!"

Then they all saw Makai and Yamashiro run out of the Digital Zone screaming. "GIANT SPIDER!"

Makai and Yamashiro ran past them, Rika quickly ran into the mansion and picked up Viximon and ran back out towards the Digital Zone with Takato.

As they entered it, they saw Fushen hanging upside down on web; then they noticed that there was web everywhere, like a giant spider parlour. Then they noticed Sam looking up in amazement, soon Rika and Takato looked up and noticed a giant spider Digimon. "It's a Dokugumon!"

"A real…Dokugumon… she's beautiful!" muttered Saburo.

"It may be but its too dangerous, you've got to get out of here!" said Rika.

Saburo was completely silent, almost as if he was in a trance.

Takato looked up to see Dokugumon getting closer. "We have no choice. He's just gonna have to see her!"

"F-Fine! Ready Viximon?"

"Ready!"

After that, Rika threw Viximon into the air and she became encased in a blue digitized egg, Viximon immediately Digivolved into Renamon and landed gracefully ready to fight the Dokugumon. "Well what do we have here… a few snacks have entered my parlour."

"Eat dirt!" said Renamon looking fierce.

"Oh… its spicy too!" chuckled the Dokugumon

After that, Renamon shot her diamond storm attack onto Dokugumon but she blocks with the web around her. Renamon then jumps up and tries to fire another diamond storm barrage, but Dokugumon blocks with her web once more. This time Dokugumon shoots a spray of web on Renamon sending her flying onto another batch of the web trapping her.

"Renamon! I know!" Rika takes out her Digivice and it began to glow, Renamon was encased in a blue digitized egg which blasted off the web around her and immediately Digivolved into Kyubimon who landed next to Rika.

Kyubimon blasted nine streams of fire across the web parlour; which had destroyed Dokugumon's web shields and freed Fushen from the web too, he then fell onto the ground hard and just watched in shock. Unfortunately, the web may have been burnt, but its still standing strong. "Dokugumon: Ha! My web is far too strong to be destroyed by mere fire. Now face my full wrath!"

"Pepper breath!"

Suddenly a fire ball shot out and smacked into Dokugumon's face. They all looked and noticed to their shock, it was Shina and an Agumon.

"Shina!?"

"You're a Tamer too!?"

"I'm more than that!" said Shina looking confident "I'm a member of the Grand Tamers. Ready Agumon?"

"Ready!"

After that, Sarah took out her Digivice and began to glow

Agumon was then encased in a yellow digitized egg

"Agumon Digivolve to… Greymon!"

Suddenly the giant masked T-Rex known as Greymon appeared after a shockwave and gave out a huge roar which frightened Dokugumon. "EEK! Oh boy!"

"Lets do this!" shouted Greymon.

"Yeah!"

After that, Greymon and Kyubimon shot out a huge stream of fire each blasting Dokugumon and destroying the entire web parlour altogether. After a huge explosion; Kyubimon and Greymon changed back to Viximon and Agumon, then they all noticed Dokugumon was still alive, but toasted. "… Ouch"

Then Rika walked up to Dokugumon and pointed her Digivice to her. Then Dokugumon disappeared in a binary of light, then they all looked at Saburo, Shina, Agumon and Fushen.

Rika faced Saburo "I'm... sorry you had to see that… but she was a threat."

"That's… alright… I know it was a bad Digimon…"

They then looked at Fushen who was really freaking out now. "M-M-MONSTERS! REAL MONSTERS!"

Fushen then ran off but he was quickly caught by the police who just arrived, along with Makai Kei and Yamashiro; Agumon quickly hides behind a tree while Viximon jumps back into Rika's arms.

"Fushen... your fired!" said Makai.

As the others walked off, Shina faced Takato and Rika "So you two are Tamers huh?"

"Yeah." said Rika nodding. "We certainly didn't know you were"

"Well we Tamers have to keep it a secret don't we." said Shina as Agumon walked back to her.

"So what did you mean by Grand Tamers anyway?" asked Takato.

"oh right… well I'm part of a special force who deals with Bio-Emerging Digimon like a team, we even sometimes deal with evil Digimon in the Digital World. But we also do special missions from Hypnos to take down this evil man and his wretched plans. But that wench's been locked up seven years ago! And he's never coming out!"

"I see… sounds pretty cool." said Takato, he then faced Rika "Y'know, maybe you, me and Henry could be a team too."

Rika ignored this and faced Shina "So what about Saburo… he saw your Digimon didn't he?"

"Oh don't worry... he already knew Digimon exist a long time ago, although the rest of the family don't, but its best they don't know anyway."

"Rika! Its time to go!" called Rumiko

"Coming mom!"

* * *

It turned out the overall reason why Fushen brought up the rumours of Makai Kei being a paedophile was because Fushen was jealous of Makai being a huge success, and believed he was better suited for the job, so his idea was to have Makai either shut down his company or leave it for Fushen to take over.

Later that day, Rika and Takato were in Rika's room where Takato hung his jacket on a coat hanger in her room; Takato had decided to sleep over at Rika's for the night since it was pretty late already.

"Boy… that was some day huh?" asked Rika.

"Yeah… spiders this… spiders that… that was a really weird day."

"Well I'm just glad its all over now… and personally I never want to see another spider again."

Unfortunately, Rika's hope isn't going to happen soon, they both noticed that Takato's jacket was shaking. And suddenly a million baby spiders crawled out of the pocket, Rika remembered about Hitomi the spider she placed in Takato's pocket. All the two did was run out of the room and into the garden screaming as the spiders began to chase them.

The end for now.

* * *

_This is actually my least favourite chapter because of the questionable things and the fact this was based off of a manga chapter in the Phoenix Wright Series, in fact I was more than inclined to replace it, but the thing is though is that one of the characters in this chapter is set to appear again, and he/she has a very important role. So I decided to keep it._


	18. Viral Like Vex

_**Digimon Tamers: Rika's AU**_

**Chapter 18: Viral Like Vex**

It was Guilmon's check-up, we find him, Takato and Thomas at his lab. The check-up was the same for all Digimon, a quick blood sample and a Digivolution Test. The blood sample was almost complete, all was left was for Thomas to finish the complicated stuff on the computers, Takato was impressed how he could use two computers at once.

"Does all that need two computers?" asked Takato.

"No, just one, but I've fallen back on my research so I'm multi-tasking." said Thomas looking over to Takato, Takato became even more impressed how he never had to look. "Being both ambidextrous and an all around computer wizard has its advantages." he turned back to the computers.

"Hm, I have an uncle who's ambidextrous." said Takato smiling. "Bit of a weird guy too, he had artificial legs… but real feet."

Thomas stopped typing completely and slowly turned to face Takato with a raised eyebrow "How did he-" Suddenly both of Thomas's computers shut down instantly, alongside multiple other machines near him. "W-WHAT THE?! What happened?!"

"Lookie Takatomon." said Guilmon walking up to him with a big smile and a plug wire in his mouth "I found some string."

Takato looked at Guilmon nervously "T-That's not a string boy that's-"

"The plug to my machines!" said Thomas looking quite angry as he snatches the plug out of Guilmon's mouth, he then moved to the plug sockets and plugged it back in. The computers and machines turned back on. "You are so lucky I have auto-save on every one of my computers."

"Sorry about that." said Takato rubbing the back of his head. "Good thing you didn't become Viral like Vex."

Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Viral like Vex?"

"Oh that's right, you're not from our school." said Takato, "That's a saying we have for people who are either completely obsessed with computers or would try to kill someone for ruining their computer work."

"So why is it called Viral like Vex?" asked Thomas. "Seems a bit obscure."

"Its… kind of a long story." said Takato.

"Well I need to wait for these computers to reboot." said Thomas, "Plus I'm kinda curious about this Viral like Vex thing."

"Well… alright." said Takato, "But you have to promise to not tell Rika I said this."

"Agreed."

"Yay! Story time!" cheered Guilmon as he jumped onto the examination desk.

Takato cleared his throat slightly. "It all started about two years ago."

* * *

"_Victor Edward Xavier… or Vex as we preferred to call him, was possibly the biggest computer nerd we've ever had, he could tell hundreds of facts about computers and all their codes all from memory. Some called him the nerd of nerds."_

We find a younger Rika walking along the hallways towards her next class, as she turned a corner, she accidentally bumped into another student and they dropped their books. The other student was somewhat taller than Rika and was very skinny, he had thick round glasses, short scruffy white hair and wore a the same school uniform for boys like everyone else.

"Hey watch it." said Rika, then she recognised him immediately. "Oh it's you Vex."

"Sorry about that Rika." said Vex in a calm matter as he and Rika began to pick up their books, "I was in my own little world."

"I'm surprised you have your own little world, given how cramped it must be with all that nerdy computer stuff you got up there." said Rika as she stood up with her books.

"Heh... you know me, I love computers." chuckled Vex.

"Well if you love computers so much…" Rika takes one of her books from her pile and shows it to Vex. "I have some Computer Homework due at the end of the week."

"Ah you're a star Rika." said Vex as he took it feeling quite glad. "I'll have it done by tomorrow."

"Whatever." said Rika walking past him.

"See you later." said Vex as he walked off too.

"_Most people kinda hated him for being super nerdy - go figure - but he was the kind of guy who loved doing other people's computer homework, half the school often gave him their homework and he would finish all of it in record time. Plus he was a nice guy though a bit weird, no one TRULY hated him. But he had less of a chance making real friends than Rika herself."_

"_Now that's something. So… what happened? I don't think I saw him last time I went to your school."_

"_We're not sure how or why it happened, but one day he just completely loses it."_

* * *

We find Rika and Takato walking through the corridors as usual, but they soon stopped when they saw Kazu, Kenta and Jeri looking into one of the computer classrooms. Rika didn't want anything to do with them, but stopped to see anyway since Takato did.

"What're you doing?" asked Takato.

Kazu pointed into the classroom. "Its Vex, he's gone coo-coo."

Rika and Takato looked in and what they saw was actually somewhat creepy. There with the lights off and curtains closed, Vex was using five different computers and a nearby laptop almost as the same time, swapping between them really fast. The only light source was the computer screens and Vex's glasses reflecting the light.

"What's Vex doing?" asked Rika.

"We're not sure, but he's been here since Saturday." said Kenta looking at Takato and Rika.

"Saturday? But the schools are closed on weekends." said Rika, "Did he seriously break into the school just to use the computers?"

"From what we can tell yes." said Jeri.

"Today's Wednesday… that means he's been in there for five days doing the exact same thing." said Kazu.

"Five days?! Has he had anything to eat or drink? Has he even used the bathroom?" asked Takato looking surprised.

"If he has, we didn't see him." said Jeri looking worried. "No one has the guts to go in there to talk to him, not even the teachers. We had to change classrooms during computer lessons because of him."

"I DID wonder why that was." said Rika. "Well whatever, if that nerd really wants to spend time with his artificial girlfriends, I say let him, sooner or later he's going to either collapse or the teachers will drag him out." with that Rika walked off, but she stopped to look at Takato "Are you coming Takato?"

"I'll catch up." said Takato, "Gonna see if I can make heads or tails outta what's going on."

"Whatever. See you later." Rika walked off and turned a corner.

Takato looked into the classroom seeing Vex, he just stared for a minute or so before looking at the others. "You were all trying to ask what he was doing right?"

"Just need a few more minutes of mental preparations." said Kazu.

Takato looked back to Vex, he could understand, the entire atmosphere was just downright disturbing, it was almost as if it pushed you back. But he soon took a deep breath and walked into the classroom surprising the other three. Takato felt as if he was in a horror movie now, but he soon got close enough to the computers where Vex was.

"Um… hiya Vex… what'cha doing?"

"The ultimate project!" said Vex sniggering, he slowly turned to reveal his bloodshot tired eyes, almost freaking Takato out. He turned back to the computers. "My computer expertise is almost unequalled, so I figured something… instead of simply doing other people's homework, I could do something to help Japan to an extraordinary level."

"Oh… cool?" said Takato feeling confused.

"Tell me, what is the biggest problem in the world?" asked Vex.

"Um… not enough arcades?" said Takato simply taking a wild guess.

"Wars my friend!" said Vex who turned to Takato again. "That's the biggest problem! Wars! People fight and destroy towns and countries, they make powerful missiles capable of wiping out humanity and they train people against their rights to kill their own species! We seem safe for now… but that's where my ultimate project comes in."

"That's… uh… pretty deep there." said Takato feeling nervous. "So… um, what is your ultimate project?" feeling almost regretful for asking.

"The Boomsday Virus!" said Vex sounding sinister.

"Um… you're gonna get people sick?" asked Takato.

Suddenly Vex moved up to Takato and grabbed his shoulders scaring him. "**Boomsday** Virus! It's a computer virus!"

"Uh… of course it is." said Takato leaning back, Vex soon released him and moved back to his computers.

"The Boomsday Virus is the ultimate weapon, capable of making sure Japan remains safe and sound until the end of time!" he continued to type. "It is a type of virus unlike any other, when a virus enters a computer, it destroys data files and can utterly destroy a computer internally making them incapable of working ever more… this one is different."

"It… fixes them?" said Takato feeling nervous.

"It destroys them externally!" said Vex sounding sinister. "When the Boomsday Virus enters a computer, it overloads every single electronic device within them and makes them EXPLODE!" he turned to face Takato again. "And not just some simple little spark of an explosion, I'm talking massive! A blast that reaches over a hundred yards! Now imagine that in the military where they have hundreds of computers lines up! If we have this weapon on our sides, there's no way anyone would dare attack Japan!"

Takato stepped back, having trouble believing what Vex had to say, he wasn't an expert on computers, but he knew making a computer explode like that was impossible. "Well… I'm sure your project is coming along nicely, but why use six computers?"

"In order to perfect this virus, I needed the team work of three or more, but no one would help, so I'm doing every last detail myself. Hm, fine… when my virus is completed, they'll all weep at their lost opportunity to go down into the history books."

"But you've been here since Saturday right?" asked Takato, "Don't you feel you should take a break?"

"No chance! These school computers are set to reset any and all data put on them, and my USB doesn't have enough room for all of it, so what I'm gonna do is after in finish each computer's part of the project, I'll take them from the USB to my laptop which has much more than enough to handle it, I have to make multiple trips but it'll ensure the safety of my project… assuming the power doesn't go out."

"Well… why not just use your laptop?"

"Doing it all on my one laptop will take too much time, so I'm using six to speed up the process by 50%" he then turned to Takato. "I'm sorry, but I am very busy and I feel this conversation is slowing me down, I must ask you to leave so I can finish my project."

Takato remained silent but he walked out of the room anyway, as he left, he breathed deeply rubbing the sweat off his forehead. "You ok?" asked Kazu.

"So what did he say?" asked Kenta.

"I… I honestly don't know. But he seems way too inclined to stay in there." said Takato shrugging his shoulders. "A-Anyway… first off we need to find a way to convince him to get out of there, he's going to make himself sick doing this."

"Like what?" asked Jeri.

"I dunno…" Takato took another deep breath. "But for now… I really need a break." with that he walked off leaving the others behind, the three soon began to discuss how to get Vex out of the classroom.

"_You knew though didn't you? You knew what this Vex was making wouldn't help anyone, if something that deadly got into the wrong hands, it could pretty much spell Armageddon."_

"_I know, but I also knew Vex wouldn't listen to me, and if I told anyone else this, he may have gotten into major trouble, I understood his reason but trying to stop war with a new and more powerful weapon would've just made things worse."_

"_So you were trying to get him out of that room to try and save him from a terrible mistake."_

"_I was, but it's like Rika says, I'm a coward, so I didn't say to him what it would've done. And I didn't tell anyone else what it was, if they found out, Vex would've been in huge trouble."_

* * *

The next day, Vex was still in the classroom doing the exact same thing. It wasn't long when Kazu had came to the door "Hey Vex, I have over twelve different types of computer homework to do, wanna do it for me? Or at least help?"

"Tempting but no thank you." said Vex "Much as I love to learn, I can't even take a second away from my project."

"There's two particular books which require knowing the insides of a computer." said Kazu.

"That does sound like a lot of fun, but I really need to finish this project, maybe another time." said Vex.

Kazu sighed in an annoyed tone and walked off. "No dice…" he mumbled "I was certain that would've worked."

About two hours later, Kenta came to the door. "Hey Vex, there's a computer in the other classroom that's got a huge problem, do you think you can fix it?"

"As much as I'm known for my expertise in computing, I'm really busy with my project, besides, I'm certain there are others who could fix it." said Vex.

"A-Are you sure?" asked Kenta.

"I'm quite sure." said Vex "Though if the problem hasn't subsided by the time I finish this project, I'll take a look into it, plus Kazu has a lot of homework he would like me to help him with, so it looks like I'll have a lot of things to do afterwards."

"I see…" with that Kenta left.

"_The others tried to convince him to leave, but nothing."_

"_How come you didn't just force him out?"_

"_I didn't want people to think his project was dangerous, dragging him out may have suspected something. Plus I kinda wanted him to willingly leave. To see if he could understand what he was making."_

The next day, we find Jeri arriving at the door to see Vex was still there. Jeri dug into her bag and took out a tall flask with a cup for a lid. "Um… excuse me Vex, but you must be thirsty, would you like some cocoa?"

"Oh… that would be nice, could you bring it in please?" asked Vex.

"Oh... I-I shouldn't really." said Jeri not expecting that. "Y-You… um… you might spill some on the computers."

"Hm… good point…" said Vex. "I'll have it later then if that's alright."

"Oh… well alright…" said Jeri, with that she walked off feeling disappointed.

Much later - believe it or not - Jessica came to the door looking concerned seeing Vex in his state. But before she did anything, she pulled her typical smug-like face "Hey Vex, I have some homework for you to do."

"Sorry Jessica… but my project needs my full attention. Besides, Kazu already asked me to do his later." said Vex.

"Wow... surely you must feel bad for declining the most beautiful and charming girl in school." said Jessica smirking as she places her arms behind her head.

"I felt a bit bad for declining the others earlier." said Vex still fixated to his computers. "But my project needs my full attention… and I'm almost done."

"Hmph… fine be that way." said Jessica looking huffy "You'll regret not having my attention." with that she left.

Vex slowly turned to the door to see Jessica wasn't there anymore, he then let out a slow sigh before getting back to work.

"_No matter what anyone did, he still refused to leave those computers. I got worried for his health, since staying awake without food, water or any form of rest for that long would've killed him."_

"_He had a strong will I'll give him that."_

"_Yes, but I also grew scared, if that virus he was making was the real deal, then as you said, it would spell Armageddon. And he claimed he was almost done."_

"_So what happened?"_

"_Well… Rika found out he was still in there and everyone else failed to get him out… so Rika decided to take this matter into her own hands."_

* * *

On Monday. Rika looked through the door to see Vex still at his five computers and one laptop, for two weeks he had been on those computers non-stop. She couldn't understand why the teachers weren't doing a thing about it, feeling irritated that everyone else had trouble doing something as simple as getting him out of the classroom, she decided to do it herself to shut everyone up.

Rika walks into the room and was about six feet from Vex. "Hey Vex, you need to get off those computers now."

"I can't! I'm so close to finishing my project." said Vex staring at the screens.

"I don't care, you're stupid project is going to kill you." said Rika looking annoyed. "You've been in here for two whole weeks doing nothing but that nerd stuff."

"What do you care anyway Ice Queen?" asked Vex looking a bit annoyed, more than likely his tired state getting to him. "Last time I checked, you never cared for anyone except your boyfriend Takato."

"We're just friends you idiot!" said Rika. "And personally I don't care, but to think that everyone else is having a hard time of doing something as simply as dragging your nerdy ass outta here. I'm taking matters into my own hands."

Rika suddenly grabbed Vex's shoulder pulling him slightly. "What are you-"

"Now look!" said Rika glaring at Vex. "Are you gonna get off those computers and get a real life, or am I gonna have to force you to stop you're project?"

Vex pulled himself from Rika's grip and faced his computers again. "I only have a little to go left! Just three days will do, I'll leave once I finish my project. I'm so close!"

"So that's it then?" asked Rika. "Fine then, but know that you've forced this upon yourself."

Vex ignored her and continued his work, but it wasn't long until in a sudden flash, every last computer had immediately turned themselves off. "WHAAT?! NOOOO!" screamed Vex grabbing onto the sides of one of the computers looking completely horrified. "HOW?! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!"

Vex turned to the wall to see that Rika had removed the main plug from the wall, the very plug powering every machine in this room, she faces Vex before throwing the plug onto the ground. "I warned you didn't I? Now get the hell out of this classroom."

Rika slowly made her way towards the door, Vex turned back to his computers and his laptop. "N-n-n-no! T-two weeks of hard work… gone. I… I only got to saving a fraction of it." he then slowly turned to Rika grinding his teeth with the look of unrelenting anger in his eyes.

Rika heard fast footsteps behind her, she quickly turned around, but to her shock, Vex suddenly threw his fist so hard into the side of Rika's head she was thrown back smashing her forehead against the glass of the door shattering it, she stumbled back and fell onto her backside holding her bleeding forehead in agony.

"ALL MY HARD WORK!" Vex suddenly wrapped the plug wire around her neck and began to strangle her, she let out a faint scream of pain trying desperately to get the wire from around her neck, starting to feel light headed and losing oxygen. "YOU HEARTLESS BITCH! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!" Rika could no longer scream, getting harder to struggle, she began to lose her grip on the wire feeling limp.

"RIKA!" Vex looked ahead hearing the voice. Suddenly Takato punched Vex square in the face breaking his glasses and throwing him back hitting the ground. Takato immediately removed the wire and Rika gasped for breath. Feeling her body capable of moving again, he tried her best to breath in oxygen, she let out a some violent coughs feeling blood in her mouth. "A-Are you alright?!" asked Takato.

Rika faced Vex looking like she was about to explode with anger "THAT BASTARD!"

Rika quickly got up and picked up Vex's laptop, just as Vex sat up, Rika smashed the laptop over Vex's head making a loud cracking sound. Vex was rendered unconscious, Rika began gasping for breath again as she dropped the laptop, then she suddenly fell unconscious too, but Takato immediately caught her before she hit the ground. "Rika! Hang in there!"

"_None of us expected this, we knew Vex wasn't himself but to almost kill Rika because of his project, none of us could believe Vex was capable of such a thing. Rika was expelled for a week for her act of violence, but it was more or less to help her recover. Vex was expelled for life, wasting so much electricity from the school and almost killing another student. A part of me was upset Vex had gone so far off the deep end, but I was glad too, his project was erased thanks to Rika… well… almost."_

"_Almost?"_

"_Vex's laptop, it still had some of the project on it. So I hid it from the teachers and took it home with me, if anyone got their hands on it, they might have finished the Boomsday Virus. I still have it today actually, its been collecting a lot of dust."_

"_You didn't even try to delete it?"_

"_I did, but it won't go, I think Vex put in some sort of program to prevent his files from being deleted. I even tried to destroy it, but that laptop is sturdier than titanium!"_

"_Well it was better that you got it and hidden it, so Vex's project was completely over…"_

"_That's what I thought… until one month later."_

* * *

A month later, we find Rika and Takato walking home from school as usual, Rika rubbed her neck slightly, still feeling a slight burn from being strangled. Takato noticed this, "You ok?"

"Yeah I think so… my neck still feels a bit sore." said Rika feeling irritated. "For a computer nerd he sure had a very good grip."

"Well he's gone now, no way he's getting back to school." chuckled Takato.

"Y-Yeah…" said Rika.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion coming from one of the buildings in the middle area, and even more explosions occurred in that area all around filling up every window and soon every floor. Rika and Takato looked up in shock "What the hell?!" shouted Rika. But they soon looked ahead to see everyone was running away screaming.

Suddenly more explosions happened in a building across the street, and in a third building further away.

Rika and Takato ran from the buildings as they began to shatter into thousands of concrete pieces with fireballs and glass raining around it. As they got to a safe enough distance, they saw the buildings falling into the streets crushing several people, the streets cracked on impact and smock filled the skies.

Silence soon came to the area, the streets were filled with the remains of the three buildings, hundreds of people were killed by this, and several other buildings around it were badly damaged. Rika couldn't help but cover her mouth in shock, she had never seen so much carnage in her life.

Takato slowly took one step forward with the look of terror in his eyes. "N… No way… it's… it's Vex… he…" Takato went onto his knees. "He finished the Boomsday Virus."

"_To think that all our efforts were wasted, regardless of what we did, Vex still finished the virus and he used it to kill hundreds of people in his own city."_

"_He must've remembered all of the codes to redo it. Since he remembered them, it must've taken less time… but he must've had less computers to work with."_

"_Rika and I knew where he lived, so we went to his house to confront him. But his parents said he hasn't came home for so long, he must've found another place to do his project. We honestly didn't know where to look, so we gave up the search and hoped Vex doesn't use the virus again."_

* * *

We find Rika in her living room watching an episode of a Digimon Anime while drinking a bottle of soda, but she hardly paid attention to the anime, she was still a bit shaken up from what happened, she wondered if Vex would use that virus again and where, and she wondered why Takato never said anything before about this.

Speaking of Takato, Rika noticed the goggle-headed boy himself banging at her window before running towards the front door. Rika immediately got up and quickly made it to the door to open it for Takato who almost barged in "Rika, have you seen the news?"

"What? N-No." said Rika.

Takato quickly walked past her and picked up the remote to change the channel. Rika walked up to the TV to see what Takato was panicking about.

"The one who was responsible for the terrorist attack has been caught. The government had tracked the virus down to it's source on the outskirts of the city."

Rika grew shocked to see the police dragging Vex away as he struggled, police behind him were carrying three computers.

"According to a lone survivor of the incident, he claimed that all of the computers shown large text saying 'Boomsday' before they all suddenly exploded in a violent manner. The boy known as Victor Edward Xavier claimed he was responsible for the attack upon interrogation and had also claimed it was a test."

Suddenly Vex freed himself from the police and ran up to the news reporter and grabbed the microphone off of him. "People, my Boomsday Virus is the most brilliant state of the art work, listen to me leaders of Japan, we can use my perfect project to protect the city until the end of time!" The police grabbed Vex again as the reporter took back his microphone.

Rika felt shocked to see all this, "To think he did all that. Did he seriously think a weapon of that damage would help us?!"

"_My guess is the government didn't listen to him."_

"_All that saw was an insane kid who killed hundreds of people and destroyed a section of a city with no warning or anything… no matter how young he was, they never wanted to take any more chances… Vex… was sentenced to death two days later, no trial or anything. He admitted everything before he was even arrested."_

* * *

Present day. We find Takato, Guilmon and Thomas at his lab. Takato was finishing his story.

"Since then, we came up with that Viral like Vex saying. Not only as a saying, but to remind others of the horrible things he done." said Takato looking upset. "Vex was a good person, to see him just change like that was unbelievable."

"Deep down I'm sure he was, he simply wanted to help the country he loved, he sacrificed so much of himself… but he was misguided. He created something that could've made things worse. And the lack of food and sleep made him insane." said Thomas crossing his arms." soon Thomas realised something. "Hey, you still have Vex's laptop don't you?"

"I do why?"

"It might still have the codes for that virus, if you give it to me, I might be able to destroy it." said Thomas looking determined. "Vex may be a computer wizard, but I'm no slouch either, I might be able to delete the virus once and for all."

Takato was silent, but then he nodded. "Alright, I trust you with this."

"Good… but lets get Guilmon's Digivolution test out of the way first."

* * *

The next day, we find Takato and Rika walking home from the card shop. "Dang… doubles as always." muttered Takato. But he was a bit distracted, he gave Thomas Vex's old laptop yesterday, and he wondered if the virus was erased like he said he would try and do, he definitely knew to ask him next time they met, assuming Rika doesn't find out, because more than likely, she would be angry for keeping a secret like that from her.

Soon the two stopped as they noticed someone at the nearby cemetery, wearing a full trench coat and a wide rimmed hat to try and hide their face. The person left the cemetery, but she lifted her head up to look at the roads before crossing, Rika grew surprised, although there was a distance, Rika was certain that was Jessica, her enemy. She then looked at the cemetery. "Was Jess visiting someone who died?"

The two waited for Jessica to be out of sight and the two entered the cemetery, there they saw the tombstone Jessica was visiting, this was known for the recent flowers and this tombstone was the closest to her while she was in it.

"Victor Edward Xavier…" Rika muttered, reading the tombstone. "Vex? Man… that was really something two years ago…"

"Almost killed you and destroyed a section of Japan." said Takato. "He… he was a nice person deep down, he was-"

"An insane bastard." said Rika interrupting Takato. "Lets just leave it at that." she then turned around to face the streets "But why was Jess visiting him?"

"Who knows Rika… who knows." said Takato. With that the two left and began to walk to Takato's house.

* * *

At Thomas's lab, we find the boy himself with Vex's old laptop, he opened it and turned it on, smirking slightly how it still had some power left. "Now lets see how sophisticated you are Vex."

Once the computer was fully turned on, Thomas sat down and began searching through it to find the codes relating to the Boomsday Virus. He soon found it and began scrolling through all the codes reading them "Looks like he was only able to save 30% of it before he was interrupted." he looked away for a bit "If I complete this, I could have my own weapon to take down-" he soon shook his head "No… it's not worth it, don't go Viral like Vex, you don't need it anyway."

After scrolling through the codes, he began to type his own into another section and then his 'Delete' soon enough, Vex's codes were slowly being erased. "He's definitely not as good as me." But Thomas noticed something unusual. He began to search through the computer again and noticed something in the history section.

"According to this… the Boomsday Virus code was… copied to another computer?!" he typed a bit more in to find out. "When?" Soon Thomas got his answer, he began to feel scared.

"Two months ago!?"

The end for now

* * *

_Apologise for not updating every Friday like I had said, I received quite a few distractions with new games coming out, plus I wanted to update Pokemon Platinum a bit beforehand. Also, this chapter wasn't a remade one, its completely new, this is one advantage to combining a bunch of chapters, and that's room to make new ones. I'm still gonna try and keep this updating every Friday, but know that the other comics and fan-fics I work on may eat up my time working on Rika's AU, plus if I make any more brand new chapters, it'll take even longer. Granted this one was short, but I've already explained my reasons._

_None the less I do hope you enjoyed this and why not check out my other fan-fictions here and/or my comics on DeviantART._


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